Army will be coming in peace
Canadian Forces plan local training session but county councillors worry residents will think they're responding to Trump
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) will be conducting manoeuvres throughout the county next month as part of a show of forced aimed at deterring a U.S. invasion.
If I had written that sentence six months ago, you’d have assumed it was fiction or maybe looked at the calendar to see if it was already April 1. But given the new reality we face with an aggressive, unpredictable leader to the south, today I suspect some of you just read that and said: “Good. #ElbowsUp.”
The reality is a bit more nuanced. More than 800 CAF reservists will be busy across much of the southern county from April 25 to 27, but it’s part of a training session designed to ensure the soldiers can assist with public emergencies, Lt Col Nicolas Arakgi told Northumberland County council on Wednesday.
Arakgi is the commanding officer of 31 Territorial Battalion Group, which is based in London. A key part of the training mission is getting the reservists to free themselves from their daily jobs and lives and travel 250 kilometres so they can carry out the mission, he explained.
The scenario they will be playing out suggests that most full-time military personnel are busy with an ongoing G7 meeting, when a mid-air collision occurs that results in a crash just north of Cobourg. The reservists are not expected to assist with first responders but are to be dispatched within 72 hours to help with crowd control and search efforts.
Arakgi said the response will be headquartered in Baltimore but will include activities in Campbellford and Warkworth such as co-ordinating search and rescue with local services, protecting cordoned off areas, and checking vehicles.
Given the current political climate, it’s not surprising that some councillors focused on what the Forces and the county plan to do to explain to residents that what’s going on is just a drill.
Cramhe Councillor Mandy Martin said that recently some American bird watchers who were at Presquile park came rushing out, to safety they hoped, when they heard an explosion nearby and feared fighting had broken out. It was actually a blast from a quarry along Lake Ontario, but the nervousness is not unexpected.
Councillor Scott Jibb, mayor of Hamilton township, asked how residents will be warned to expect to see hundreds of soldiers in their area.
County Communications Director Kate Campbell outlined the ways the county plans to alert residents, including a news release that went out today. She said social media feeds will also be used closer to the event.
“We all feel an existential threat,” Warden Brian Ostrander said, noting that the presence of soldiers may heighten concerns.
Arakgi told council such military training sessions are very important given the number of times the Forces have to respond to incidents caused by climate change.
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Let's hope they have better maps than the one included in this article which is unreadable and therefore unusable.