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Forces' e-mails track 'Jos. Louis diplomacy'
Minister's Request
Graeme Hamilton, National Post, 26 Jun 08
Article link
MONTREAL -- History books may not remember the contribution of Warrant Officer Marc Desgagne to the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan, but without him, an urgent operation last fall would have ended in failure.
It was the afternoon of Oct. 3, when "Operation Jos. Louis" was launched.
Maxime Bernier, then foreign affairs minister, was leaving the next day for Afghanistan from CFB Trenton. He wanted to distribute some Jos. Louis snack cakes -- created in his Beauce riding -- to troops from the Quebec-based Van Doos.
E-mail correspondence published yesterday by the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir shows how the last-minute search for Jos. Louis consumed Canadian Forces personnel.
"As per our [discussion] we require qty 2000 Joe Louis on the flight going out tomorrow," Major Brock Heilman of Canadian Operational Support Command wrote in an e-mail at 2: 49 p. m, under the subject heading, "Op JOELOUIS." A few minutes later, continuing to misspell the snack name, he added jokingly:
are branch planning Op FLAKEY as we speak just in case," referring to another Vachon pastry.
Captain James Hickey warned that failure was not an option: The flight was leaving the next day at 3:45 p. m., "and those Joe Louis cakes must be on it."
But hunting down snack foods was never part of basic training. At 4:39 p. m., Lieutenant-Colonel Rob Dundon announced the effort had hit a wall. "No joy here," he reported back in an e-mail flagged high importance. "We pulled out all the stops and checked with all distributors and retailers from Kingston to Toronto. We can only muster 46 boxes [of six] caramel cakes. The bottom line is that the request simply came too late." The matter, he said, was closed for the night.
Warrant Officer Desgagne of 8 Wing food services in Trenton was home from work when he heard about the problem from a former colleague at Canadian Operational
Op JOELOUIS is in motion we Support Command in Ottawa. Over 2½ hours, he drove 160 kilometres, clearing the shelves of Jos. Louis at nine grocery stores in Trenton, Brighton and Belleville.
At 10: 04 p. m., he e-mailed the news that he had amassed 2,185 of the round chocolate cakes in various-sized boxes. The total bill was $972, and he claimed $79.20 for mileage. He delivered the cargo to the plane the next morning, giving special instructions to make sure the cakes were refrigerated during the layover at Camp Mirage in the United Arab Emirates. Within days, Mr. Bernier was being photographed distributing the cakes to soldiers in Kandahar.
Warrant Officer Desgagne earned praise. His efforts meant that "not only was the Minister satisfied, more importantly the troops at [Kandahar Air Field] got an unexpected treat from home," an Oct. 8 e-mail noted. Not everyone was pleased though. Lieutenant-Colonel Carrie Fortier of 8 Wing was angry that the cakes had been procured without following the proper chain of command.
"If the back-door requests keep coming, my folks will continue to do their damnedest to make it work -- missing leave and burning out by doing so, and you and I will not be able to exercise our leadership prerogative to ensure our folks are looked after," she wrote to the squadron commander in an Oct. 9 e-mail.
In retrospect, Mr. Bernier may have wished Warrant Officer Desgagne had not shown such perseverance. His "Jos. Louis diplomacy" ended up being ridiculed back in his home province.
"We thank our soldiers for their work and their sacrifice by giving them cakes," Liberal MP Denis Coderre told La Presse at the time. "That's nice." When Mr. Bernier resigned last month, the Jos. Louis episode was cited as evidence that he had been a lightweight on the world stage.
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Forces' e-mails track 'Jos. Louis diplomacy'
Minister's Request
Graeme Hamilton, National Post, 26 Jun 08
Article link
MONTREAL -- History books may not remember the contribution of Warrant Officer Marc Desgagne to the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan, but without him, an urgent operation last fall would have ended in failure.
It was the afternoon of Oct. 3, when "Operation Jos. Louis" was launched.
Maxime Bernier, then foreign affairs minister, was leaving the next day for Afghanistan from CFB Trenton. He wanted to distribute some Jos. Louis snack cakes -- created in his Beauce riding -- to troops from the Quebec-based Van Doos.
E-mail correspondence published yesterday by the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir shows how the last-minute search for Jos. Louis consumed Canadian Forces personnel.
"As per our [discussion] we require qty 2000 Joe Louis on the flight going out tomorrow," Major Brock Heilman of Canadian Operational Support Command wrote in an e-mail at 2: 49 p. m, under the subject heading, "Op JOELOUIS." A few minutes later, continuing to misspell the snack name, he added jokingly:
are branch planning Op FLAKEY as we speak just in case," referring to another Vachon pastry.
Captain James Hickey warned that failure was not an option: The flight was leaving the next day at 3:45 p. m., "and those Joe Louis cakes must be on it."
But hunting down snack foods was never part of basic training. At 4:39 p. m., Lieutenant-Colonel Rob Dundon announced the effort had hit a wall. "No joy here," he reported back in an e-mail flagged high importance. "We pulled out all the stops and checked with all distributors and retailers from Kingston to Toronto. We can only muster 46 boxes [of six] caramel cakes. The bottom line is that the request simply came too late." The matter, he said, was closed for the night.
Warrant Officer Desgagne of 8 Wing food services in Trenton was home from work when he heard about the problem from a former colleague at Canadian Operational
Op JOELOUIS is in motion we Support Command in Ottawa. Over 2½ hours, he drove 160 kilometres, clearing the shelves of Jos. Louis at nine grocery stores in Trenton, Brighton and Belleville.
At 10: 04 p. m., he e-mailed the news that he had amassed 2,185 of the round chocolate cakes in various-sized boxes. The total bill was $972, and he claimed $79.20 for mileage. He delivered the cargo to the plane the next morning, giving special instructions to make sure the cakes were refrigerated during the layover at Camp Mirage in the United Arab Emirates. Within days, Mr. Bernier was being photographed distributing the cakes to soldiers in Kandahar.
Warrant Officer Desgagne earned praise. His efforts meant that "not only was the Minister satisfied, more importantly the troops at [Kandahar Air Field] got an unexpected treat from home," an Oct. 8 e-mail noted. Not everyone was pleased though. Lieutenant-Colonel Carrie Fortier of 8 Wing was angry that the cakes had been procured without following the proper chain of command.
"If the back-door requests keep coming, my folks will continue to do their damnedest to make it work -- missing leave and burning out by doing so, and you and I will not be able to exercise our leadership prerogative to ensure our folks are looked after," she wrote to the squadron commander in an Oct. 9 e-mail.
In retrospect, Mr. Bernier may have wished Warrant Officer Desgagne had not shown such perseverance. His "Jos. Louis diplomacy" ended up being ridiculed back in his home province.
"We thank our soldiers for their work and their sacrifice by giving them cakes," Liberal MP Denis Coderre told La Presse at the time. "That's nice." When Mr. Bernier resigned last month, the Jos. Louis episode was cited as evidence that he had been a lightweight on the world stage.
[email protected]
