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More Men with Guns: Canadian Forces Join Haiti Aid Blitz
by C. L. Cook
Following the Pentagon's lead, Canada announced today it will send more than a thousand soldiers to disaster-stricken Haiti in the coming week. Canadian state media, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) quoted defense minister, Peter MacKay expressing concern at what he determined to be Haiti's "deteriorating situation." Canadian Brigadier-General Guy Laroche, recently commanding officer of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan will lead Canada's "military relief" mission to Haiti.
MacKay said; "We have Canadian forces that are trained specifically to crowd control
and how to respond to this type of deteriorating situation. [...] We have the aircraft available. We have secured time slots [for
landing at the Port-au-Prince airport], which makes this a more orderly
deployment."
Canadian Forces (CF) say the soldiers will be drawn from the CF Base Valcartier, Quebec, and will consist of engineers, medics, and security. They will join the approximately 200 members of Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) already in the earthquake ravaged country, and 500 soldiers currently en route to Haiti aboard two Canadian Navy vessels.
The Foreign Affairs ministry says more Canadians in the country at the time of the quake have been located alive. Nearly 1500 Canadian nationals were in Haiti last Tuesday when the approximately 7.0 Richter Scale temblor struck only a few kilometers from the capital, Port-au-Prince. As of today, according to the ministry, eight Canadians are known to have been killed and more than 1100 are unaccounted for.
Two hundred Canadian evacuees arrived at Trudeau Airport, Montreal Saturday night, bringing to 593 the number of Canadian repatriated to date.
Meanwhile, Canada's immigration minister pledged support for Haitian immigration applications with family already in Canada, and says the ministry will extend visas in process while the emergency in Haiti continues. Immigration minister Jason Kenney said Haitians must demonstrate they are "directly and significantly affected" by the earthquake to receive special consideration.Kenney also promised child adoption cases from Haiti will be fast tracked.
At this hour, (11:00 am pacific standard time) CBC television news is reported suppositions of rough justice meted out to what their reporter, David Commons speculates may be due to looters, or "clan" conflicts.
There is a discernible stream of media reports, primarily coming from American and British corporate outlets, painting a picture of a lawless, violent, and chaotic situation on the ground in the city. This, they contend, makes the military responses being mobilized by the United States and Canada necessary.
The now-retired U.S. general in charge of military deployments to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katirna, Russel Honore said, though he believed the army could have been sent sooner, they are firmly entrenched now. Lieutenant-General Honore, now a paid commentator for news network, CNN said;
"What we've got to do now is get the heavy equipment in. I thought the
U.S. military could have been there a day earlier. They're on the
ground now, and they have a brigade en route, and that's going to make
a big difference."
The Obama administration says Haitians in the United States facing deportation will be granted a temporary stay of deportation while the emergency is declared.
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