by Klaus Rohrich
January 10, 2005
Sometimes I am ashamed of being a Canadian. Yes, we Canucks never tire of telling others and ourselves about how morally superior we are, about how kind-hearted, tolerant, accepting and ready to help anyone in need. as a nation we are possessed with a conceit that far exceeds our importance to world affairs.
While Canadians as a whole are indeed a kind and compassionate people, our ability to act on those character traits is sorely limited. One outstanding example of this inability (unwillingness?) to act is the recent kafuffle surrounding deployment of our crack 200-member Disaster assistance and Relief Team (DaRT). Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) says the DaRT group is "designed to deploy rapidly anywhere in the world to crises ranging from natural disasters to complex humanitarian emergencies." More than a week after the disaster in south asia took over 150,000 lives, our government has yet to send this team to ground zero. The DaRT unit was finally deployed January 6, which is nearly two weeks after the onset of the tsunamis.
My question is: what took so long? The quantity and quality of excuses emanating from Ottawa are bizarre, to say the least. Our alleged Minister of Defence, Bill Graham claims in order to deploy the DaRT unit certain protocols had to be followed. First it had to do with the Department of Foreign affairs submitting a formal request to the DND requesting deployment of the team. Then the excuse for not sending the team was that DaRT was too large and unwieldy to be effective. another reason offered for not sending the team was that a formal request by the foreign government in question was required in order to send the team.
In the first instance, the Department of Foreign affairs could not/would not act, as most of its mandarins, including Foreign affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, were on holidays. Nothing wrong with that, but surely there must have been a telephone and access to CNN or the CBC to keep abreast of world events.
as for the second excuse, how can a 200-member team in a disaster area be too large and unwieldy to be of use, when the United States sent several aircraft carriers and an armada of supply ships?
The last excuse to me is a sublime example of Canadian Government buck-passing. There were roughly 12 countries affected by the tsunami and the Government of Canada was waiting for one of them to contact it for assistance?! If it were not so seriously sad, this would almost be funny as it has the makings of true farce.
The Government of France deployed a team of doctors to the disaster’s epicentre within hours of it happening. The French are not famous for taking precipitous action, but in this case they deserve praise for recognizing that something had to be done quickly and acting accordingly.
My guess was that the real reason the DaRT unit was not deployed was because the government did not have the wherewithal to send them. This was confirmed when the DND announced it would be using giant Russian transports to deliver the team’s supplies. as in our mission to afghanistan, the DND had a tough time sending troops because it simply didn’t have the aircraft available. In that instance, they had to rely on the americans to get there. In this case the problem was similar. But then, a government can only take so much out of defense spending without affecting its ability to deploy units, no matter what the reason. I find it distasteful that we can afford to send Governor General adrienne Clarkson and 100 of her closest friends on an arctic junket in a military aircraft, while our troops have to hitchhike.
When the government finally acted it was not out of character. as has long been the case with our government, no matter what the problem, the solution is always money. In this case the politicians acted with a precision and predictability normally only associated with fine Swiss watches. at first the government pledged $4 million, which was quickly escalated to $40 million. Then the Prime Minister, returning from a holiday in Morocco, doubled the pledge to $80 million. I’m sure the money will do a lot of good and I do not wish to convey the impression that it shouldn’t be sent. But, the only meaningful language our politicians seem to be able to speak is that of cash. How refreshing it would be if for once, our politicians had the innate creativity to do something meaningful that consisted of more than just money.
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