The Haiti Super Thread- Merged

[PanaEng]

I just flew from KAF to YTR with 2 x ROWPU units as cargo. I can only guess where they are headed from here

Wow, we obviously need a few more - among many other things. Do any of the PRes regiments have any water supply capabilities? I'm thinking every region should have at least 2 units.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Wow, we obviously need a few more - among many other things. Do any of the PRes regiments have any water supply capabilities? I'm thinking every region should have at least 2 units.

No PRes units have the full sized ROWPU's some may have the Sub-unit ROWPU's......

ZENON Mini-ROWPU

ZENON Full sized ROWPU

There are a few of us scattered across the country...........

 

[GAP]

Officials decide for Haiti's homeless: Sorry, no tents
By: Jonathan M. Katz, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 13/02/2010
Article Link

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Ask any of the hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims living outdoors in Haiti's shattered capital and you're apt to get the same plea: "Give us a tent."

Few will get one. Aid agencies and Haitian officials have given up plans to shelter the homeless in tents, even if that means many will likely face hurricane season camped out under flapping sheets of plastic.

Tents are too big, too costly and too inefficient, aid groups say. So Haitians must swelter under flimsy tarps until fixed shelters can be built - though no one believes nearly enough can be will be up in time for spring storms.

"A tent would give us more space. There are too many people in here," said Marie-Mona Destiron, sweating under the hot blue light of her family's donated plastic tarp. When it rains, she said, water slides through the gaps and turns the dirt floor to mud.

Destiron, 45, got her tarp from U.S. soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division. Her husband, Joselin Edouard, tied it to a thin mahogany tree on a dusty slope below the country club that the soldiers use as a forward-operating base. It is home to them and their six children.

The Destiron family tarp site sits atop what passes for pretty good real estate in post-quake Port-au-Prince. The family is near where soldiers distribute food, though when helicopters land, it's blasted by dirt and leaves. They moved in the day after the Jan. 12 catastrophe shattered their concrete home.

But theirs is a space prone to floods and mudslides. And come the spring rains - not to mention the hurricanes of summer and fall - they and many other Haitians are vulnerable.

International aid officials at first announced a campaign to put the homeless in tents and appealed for donations from around the world. Some 49,000 tents had reached Haiti when the government announced Wednesday it was opting for plastic sheets.

With an estimated 1.2 million people displaced by the earthquake - some 770,000 of them still in the capital - officials say there is no room for family-sized tents with their wide bases.

Besides, they are bulky and don't last long enough to justify their cost, the aid community has decided.

Further, the cluster of foreign and Haitian officials in charge of shelter decisions does not trust the mishmash of aid organizations involved to buy the right ones.

It has issued a warning that only that those with "existing expertise in the procurement of humanitarian tents" should buy them, saying that after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, 80 per cent of tents distributed were not waterproof.

Instead the officials are mobilizing a plan they call the "shelter surge:"

-By May 1, one plastic tarp will be given to each of about 250,000 displaced families.

-Transitional shelters of 18 square meters (194 square feet), with corrugated iron roofs, will then be built. They will have earthquake-and storm-resistant frames of timber or steel and are supposed to last for three years.

But putting up such shelters will take serious time and effort. Land must be procured. Money - at least $1,000 per transitional home - must be found. And desperate people who just weeks ago lost their homes must be persuaded to relocate yet again, and getting them to abandon neighbourhoods and friends won't be simple.
More on link

 

[Edward Campbell]

There is a good set of photos on the Globe and Mail website at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/project-jacmel/aboard-the-hmcs-athabaskan/article1463271/

Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29)of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail web site, are some of them, posted because they will, eventually, disappear:

All the captions were taken, verbatim, from the Globe and Mail; sailors here can correct the language.

HMCS Athabaskan sailors pull in lines to leave port in Kingston, Jamaica to head to Haiti after re-supplying.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HMCS Athabaskan Captain Crane on the bridge as they leave port in Kingston, Jamaica to head to Haiti after re-supplying.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HMCS Athabaskan sailors clean the flat or hallways aboard ship after leaving Kingston, Jamaica to head to Haiti.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HMCS Athabaskan Master Corporal, J.P. Somerset exercises on a stationary bike in a flat or hallway inside the ship as they head to Haiti.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

The HMCS Athabaskan links up for fueling during what is called a Ras, where the ships sail along side each other and the the fuel lines hooked up for fueling on the go, which needs to be done every few days.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HMCS Athabaskan sailors at the harbour in Kingston, Jamaica after a 14-hour trip from Haiti to re-supply, pick up mail and personnel as well as unload garbage.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HMCS Athabaskan sailors at the harbour in Kingston, Jamaica after a 14-hour trip from Haiti to re-supply, pick up mail and personnel as well as unload garbage.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HMCS Athabaskan Security Officer Dan Drolet, stands guard as the ship leaves port in Kingston, Jamaica to head to Haiti after re-supplying.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

14 Mess food service line and cafeteria aboard the HMCS Athabaskan.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

14 Mess food line and cafeteria aboard the HMCS Athabaskan.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

HMCS Athabaskan sailors head out for a day of work in Leogane, Haiti.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

An HMCS Athabaskan sailor has a nap while waiting on the beach in Leogane, Haiti, for the zodiacs to arrive and pick them up at the end of the day.
Photo Credit: Deborah Baic/THE GLOBE AND MAIL


I hope some of you recognize some friends and kudos to the Good Grey Globe and Deborah Baic for a look at some of the men and women doing the work in Haiti.

 

[Edward Campbell]

If any of you guys and gals in Haiti can read this, it looks like you’re getting company, according to this report, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail web site:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/project-jacmel/harper-to-travel-to-haiti-tomorrow/article1468138/

Harper to travel to Haiti tomorrow
Prime Minister set to visit Jacmel, the focus of Canadian aid efforts that have been a major cause for Conservative government

Campbell Clark

Ottawa — Globe and Mail

Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has made relief and reconstruction for Haiti a major cause for his government, will travel to the earthquake-ravaged nation on Monday to see the recovery efforts firsthand.

His visit comes as international efforts to aid Haiti, still struggling to provide basics like food and shelter and sweep rubble from roads, increasingly look ahead to the task of rebuilding the poorest nation in the Americas almost from scratch.

Mr. Harper, who a month ago ordered Canada's largest-ever emergency mission into the Caribbean nation, will visit the capital of Port-au-Prince and travel to the town of Jacmel, a hard-hit area where Canadian troops have led relief efforts.

There are now about 2,000 Canadian troops in Haiti. A strip west and south of the capital around Jacmel and the town of Léogane, the epicentre of the 7.0 magnitude quake that struck Jan. 12, has effectively become Canada's relief zone. Canadian troops expect to have distributed nearly a million meals by the time Mr. Harper departs on Tuesday.

The swift dispatch of the Canadian military's relief efforts – the first aid planes landed arrived 36 hours after the quake as two navy ships sailed – was remarkable for a country that has in recent years faced criticism for the slow pace of its emergency response.

But the troops are slated to return to Canada some time in March, and efforts will turn to the decade-long task of rebuilding Haiti, as donor nations convene at the UN in New York for a conference on reconstruction March 22 and 23.

The United Nations' emergency relief co-ordinator, John Holmes, said Haiti's immediate needs are still humanitarian relief, including the need for shelter ahead of the approaching rainy season, but it is time to think ahead to reconstruction.

“We're working as much as we can to make sure whatever we're doing on the emergency side … fits in properly with what needs to follow,” he said in a press briefing from Port-au-Prince.

The real scale of a disaster that killed more than 200,000 is still being revealed now, he said. Refugees from Port-au-Prince are straining food supplies in a country where the normal food distribution system has broken down; a huge number of buildings were levelled by the earthquake, but many more are so unsafe they will have to be demolished.

“There will need to be a lot of destruction before there can be reconstruction,” he said.

Mr. Harper will not be the first foreign leader to visit Haiti since the earthquake – the president of the neighbouring Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, visited two days after the earthquake, followed by leaders of Jamaica and Ecuador – but he will be the first from one of Haiti's major aid donors.

For Mr. Harper, Haiti has become a foreign-aid priority unlike any other in his four years in power.

More aid has flowed to Afghanistan, hand-in-hand with Canada's NATO military mission. But from the hours after the earthquake hit, Mr. Harper tied his political identity to a humanitarian mission as never before.

After dispatching troops, the government convened a preliminary donors' conference in Montreal, where nations agreed they will have to commit 10 years of efforts to reconstruction in Haiti – a country where the international community's record of start-and-stop commitment has been notorious.

Canada's ties to Haiti owe much to Governor General Michaëlle Jean, whose family roots are in Jacmel – among those killed in the earthquake was the godmother to her daughter. In addition, Montreal is home to a large Haitian diaspora.

Those links combined with Mr. Harper's desire to make the Americas a focus of his foreign policy and the palpable reaction of Canadians to the horror of the earthquake to make Haiti a focal point for Ottawa's aid in future years.

Haiti was already Canada's second-largest recipient of aid – the Canadian International Development Agency pledged $159-million last year – but Mr. Harper said at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that is “only going to get bigger in the future.”

Canada has so far pledged $135-million in emergency aid to Haiti, and promised to match donations made by individuals before Friday night. At last count, on Thursday night, Canadians had donated $145-million to 14 charities, of which $124-million was eligible for matching funds from Ottawa.

It is, politically and from a policy point of view, an opportune time for such a visit.

 

[leroi]

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all you are doing: Canada thanks you and Haiti thanks you! :hearts:

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2559050

Haiti: 'We're All Here to Do the Same Good': Geoff Everts, Canadian Navy

Reproduced with thanks to the National Post and in accordance with the Fair Dealing provision, 29, of the Copyright Act.
February 13, 2010
Photo credit Tyler Anderson
Kathryn Blaze Carlson

One month after the Jan. 12 earthquake that all but destroyed much of Haiti,
the people of Leogane are clearing the streets of rubble, and building wooden
shelters to replace their collapsed homes. Alongside them, members of the Canadian
Forces are working to help rebuild what some locals consider a forsaken city.
The Canadian navy's HMCS Athabaskan is patrolling off the coast of Leogane, and
its sailors head ashore each day to offer labour, protection and support to their army
brethren, non-governmental organizations, and the people of Haiti. The National Post's
Kathryn Blaze Carlson spent a week aboard the ship, witnessing the efforts first hand.
At the end of the tour, she spoke with Lieutenant-Commander Geoff Everts, executive
officer of HMCS Athabaskan, about the mission.

Q Was the situation in Leogane as you expected it to be?

A  Most of the reporting had been out of Port-au-Prince, so we didn't know what to expect
as we sailed down to Leogane. We planned the whole way down here. We prepared for
the worst, and thankfully it wasn't the worst. It was somewhat less than that.

Q For most of your sailors, this was their first humanitarian mission ashore. How did you
prepare them for their time ashore in Leogane?

A On the trip down here, I said to the sailors, "This is going to change all of us." I think it
has, and it has changed all of us for the better. I think we all appreciate Canada more now.
... The sailors are all very proud of what they're doing.

Q How would you describe the navy's work in Leogane?

A  We identified quick-impact projects where we knew we could get in there and give people
some shelter, food, and water right away.... The idea is that we're not set up to do long-term
sustaining of those projects, but we can work with aid organizations to help get people back
on their feet, beyond the survival stage to a living stage. The [Bonne Nouvelle de Jesus Christ]
orphanage, for example -- we're not going to be there forever. We're going to finish the
clean-up, finish the shelters, build latrines and then we hope the aid organizations will
continue long after we've left.

Q What would you consider among the greatest challenges in disaster relief efforts in Leogane so far?

A  At the start, it felt like there was a lack of co-ordination on the whole. There were a lot of
people who were trying to do good, but there was no central co-ordination, no central Haitian
oversight. My first interface was with the Canadian army -- with the commanding officer of the
Van Doo regiment. After our ship arrived here, I flew in by helicopter and met him to talk about
what kind of tasks we could accomplish. He immediately put us onto some projects, because he
had been in town for a few days and had already done a [reconnaissance] of the area. It was
amazing to have that sort of direction.

Q We sometimes hear of professional rivalry among soldiers, sailors and the air force. What
was it like to bring aboard more than 170 soldiers and transport them to Leogane alongside your sailors?

A  There is a sort of collegial pride in your team: The navy thinks they're the best service, the
army thinks they're the best service, and I imagine the air force thinks the same. The army
has lots to be proud of, but it was interesting to see them as they were leaving the ship. I
think it gave them a new respect for what we do. At the end of the day, though, we're all
Canadians, we're all here to do the same good.

Q How do you hope to leave Haiti, once HMCS Athabaskan's role in the humanitarian mission is completed?

A  I hope we leave Haiti better off than it was before. To help achieve that, we'll do our
best as long as we're here.... I hope that we, the Western world and Haitians themselves,
can work together to get the country back on its feet.

VOICES FROM LEOGANE

- "I hope that by the time we leave, we can give the Haitians the feeling that there's a better
future.... Our presence is known now -- the Canadians are recognizable, and we're building
relationships with the people of Haiti."

Commander Josee Kurtz, Captain of HMCS Halifax

- "We need to educate and inspire our own people, but first we need help from the world
.... [Canada's] navy has come here to make this place safer, to get rid of the rubble and the
psychological reminder of what happened."

Sister Claudette Charles, of a home for the elderly and mentally ill in Leogane

- "We simply could not have done this without the navy. The Canadian Forces
excels at this type of operation -- they offer amazing support on a huge scale,
whether it's communication, security, or infrastructure."

Dr. Tim Kostomo, orthopedic surgeon with the Canadian Medical Assistance

 

[Edward Campbell]

If any of you guys and gals in Haiti can read this, it looks like you’re getting company, according to this report, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail web site:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/project-jacmel/harper-to-travel-to-haiti-tomorrow/article1468138/

It is, politically and from a policy point of view, an opportune time for such a visit.

Here, courtesy of the CTV News web site, is a picture of Prime Minister Harper meeting some Canadian soldiers:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (left) and Haitian President Rene Preval (centre) meet with with Canadian troops stationed in earthquake stricken Haiti, Monday, February 15, 2010. (Fred Chartrand / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

 

[old medic]

Canadians in Afghanistan raise more than $12K to help victims of Haiti quake
(CP) – 15 Feb 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hc3gvpw7OMViOonUEHu7W4__hJYg

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Victims of the earthquake in Haiti are getting a little help from Canadians deployed to Afghanistan.

Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, the top military commander in Kandahar, presented the Canadian Red Cross with a cheque for $12,699 Monday afternoon.

Menard handed over the cheque in front of a memorial for fallen soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

"I'm extremely proud of the contribution to this effort," he said.

"It clearly demonstrates what our soldiers are all about."

The money, which was raised by members of the armed forces and civilians serving in Afghanistan, will help the survivors of the massive quake that killed some 217,000 people and demolished Port-au-Prince and surrounding villages.

Canadians have poured donations into the devastated country, to the tune of $145 million so far, with $124 million to be matched by Ottawa.

Haiti is also one of the highest beneficiaries of Canadian development funds in the world, second only to Afghanistan.

The donation comes as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to visit Haiti.

Harper is due to land in Port-au-Prince aboard a Canadian military transport plane for the start of a two-day visit this afternoon.

 

[Edward Campbell]

If any of you guys and gals in Haiti can read this, it looks like you’re getting company, according to this report, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail web site:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/project-jacmel/harper-to-travel-to-haiti-tomorrow/article1468138/

It is, politically and from a policy point of view, an opportune time for such a visit.

The Red Star’s Jim Travers disagrees with me; Harper’s visit is premature he suggests in this column, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/766017--is-this-a-mission-of-mercy-or-political-diversion

Travers: Is this a mission of mercy or political diversion?

By James Travers
National Affairs Columnist

OTTAWA

Stephen Harper's Haiti visit is premature at best and a political diversion at worst. Serious reconstruction discussions can't begin until an international assessment is complete and, as other world leaders as well as Haitian-born Governor General Michaëlle Jean recognize, even the lowest impact celebrity tour saps scarce resources from those who need them most.

It's to be fervently hoped that the Prime Minister is there to draw fading attention back to the disaster, not away from his suspension of Parliament here. Whatever his motivation, the most generous gift Canada can give to a seemingly cursed country is time.

Haiti is the conundrum that turns development optimists into pessimists. Its history showcases every top-of-mind horror known to man. Slavers, dictators and drug dealers have taken turns stealing its few blessings. Poverty, ignorance and disease keep pushing a proud, remarkably resilient people to their knees.

So Harper is right to frame the task ahead as Herculean and long-term. Even if the 10-year commitment he first talked about last month at the preliminary Montreal donors' conference is too short by half, it at least grasps the enormity of the effort and the patience it requires.

Putting both in perspective is Haiti's wretched condition before the January earthquake. Even recent progress by President René Préval's administration is a dispiritingly poor return on a massive, long-term international investment.

Canada alone is bankrolling a five-year $555 million plan that began in 2006, has had limited success and now is a drop in the notoriously leaky Haiti bucket. In the Americas, Haiti is Ottawa's top assistance recipient and globally ranks second only to Afghanistan.

There's instructive coincidence in the association of the two countries now centring Ottawa foreign policy. As Canada plunges deeper into Haiti and pulls out of Afghanistan, it's essential that Canadians apply to one the lessons of the other.

Among the most riveting is that no collective military or development plan is stronger than its weakest link. To have any reasonable chance of success, every partner must endorse an overarching strategy with common goals shaped around Zenlike acceptance that even a little improvement is a significant achievement.

It's far from clear that coherence is in Haiti's future. Again like Afghanistan, it's a victim of domestic failings and foreign interests. Its elites and state apparatus are notoriously corrupt, its informal economy thrives on feeding the U.S. drug habit and its Caribbean neighbours consider it more threat than friend.

Compounding already complex challenges is competition over a champion for Haiti's cause. All the usual positioning and posturing is underway as donors and regional powers, each with their own interests, prepare for a pivotal New York meeting just weeks away.

Washington is too worried about a flood of refugees and cocaine from a failed state uncomfortably close to Florida to cede much authority.

Canada, with its large Haitian diaspora concentrated in politically sensitive Montreal, is determined to take the lead in what may prove the quagmire exercise of building democracy and prosperity in a ruined country stripped of human capital. At the United Nations, where Haiti has long been a vexed priority, there's fear the world body will inherit nominal responsibility for the problem but not the authority or resources to cope with it.

Time, not high-profile visits, will ultimately determine if the world has the patience to help Haiti help itself, or the wisdom to accept that a little progress may be all that's possible.

James Travers' column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

First off, as Travers, himself, suggests, this trip has several aims:

1. ”To draw fading attention back to the disaster:”

2. To remind Canadians that this is a major commitment and that we have to be there for the long haul; and

3. To show support for the troops.

Travers makes some good points, but:

1. Haiti is a basket case – it needs everything, including some really important non-monetary, attitudinal, (dare I say cultural?) things;

2. The “weakest link” in Afghanistan proved to be Canadian public opinion which became bored with and then turned against the mission in Afghanistan. The same can, likely will happen if we try to make a long term commitment to Haiti;

3. An “international assessment” is a total, 100% waste of time and money. It will tell us – see Point 1, above – what we already know: Haiti is a basket case;

4. Any long term ‘solution’ for Haiti is, probably, not going to be achievable if either America or France are closely involved;

5. Canada can help – if our people are willing.

Prime Minister Harper’s visit may serve to clarify, in his own mind, what we can and cannot do in Haiti. It is neither premature nor a waste of resources. Any of the three aims I mentioned above makes it worthwhile.

 

[Rifleman62]

Mr. Jim Travers is, and always will be, an AH (two words). What he writes is drivel, always is, always will be.

PM Harper cannot do, and will never do, anything right IAW Travers and his equal inept friends.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

From the CEFCOM Fact Sheet Operation HESTIA and Joint Task Force Haiti

DART
•Engineers
◦1 ROWPU located on a river bank and producing potable water
◦Street clearance and demolition of unstable buildings under way in co‑operation with Jacmel civic authorities
◦With HMCS Halifax: Latrine excavation and construction continues at tent cities and orphanages
◦Route 204: 30.2 km clear of rubble

HMCS Halifax
◦(with DART Engineers)
■Digging latrines at orphanages
■Clearing rubble

3 R22eR Battalion Group
•Engineers — 5e Régiment de genie
◦2 ROWPUs producing potable water
◦Supplying water to Role 2 hospital and Médecins sans frontières
◦Clearing streets in Léogâne with local workers employed by U.N. and Canadian-funded cash-for-work programs
◦With HMCS Athabaskan:
■Latrine excavation and construction continues at tent cities and orphanages
■Construction of Government and Crisis Centre at Mairie de Léogâne under way

 

[PanaEng]

Mr Campbell, you make some great points. I absolutely agree with all your observations but more so with #4
Rwanda came to mind when I read that one.

cheers,
Frank

 

[PMedMoe]

'Special' little girl steals sailor's heart

She puts her fingers in his ears, crayons up his nose and has a habit of digging her wee nails into the red flush of his cheeks.

These are the tactics two-year-old Felicity used to endear herself to Petty Officer Andy Cotterill, a Canadian sailor here who has spent what little downtime he has had recently figuring out how to bring the little girl home.

Stationed aboard HMCS Halifax off the coast of Jacmel, PO Cotterill has been coming ashore each day as part of the Navy teams assigned to help rebuild orphanages and other priority sites around this seaside city. While many Canadian sailors serving in Jacmel and nearby Léogâne have pondered adopting a Haitian child after long days working at orphanages here, PO Cotterill has fully made up his mind.

“Officially, I'm going to see if I can make her my daughter,” he said recently, after his sixth meeting with the little girl.

“I didn't know how special … she was going to turn out to be until I'd met her a couple of times. The first time I met her she was just a little girl in an orphanage. I didn't know her name, I didn't know anything.”

More at link including audio slideshow

 

[old medic]

Canada begins military withdrawal from Haiti
By Juliet O’Neill
Canwest News Service
22 Feb 2010
copy at: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2598545

OTTAWA -- Canadian military forces are starting to withdraw from crisis work in Haiti and the government is nearing a "tipping point" where many of 50 Canadians still missing six weeks after a massive earthquake will be deemed dead. That will boost the current confirmed death toll of 34 Canadians.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said at a news conference Monday that Canada is "beginning to progressively see the withdrawal of Canadian Forces assets" as commercial air service is now available on the Caribbean island and the government of Haiti, the United Nations and aid agencies have a handle on emergency relief efforts.

HMCS Halifax, the navy vessel that was stationed off Jacmel, Haiti, for the last few weeks, and her 220-member crew, departed late last week and are due home March 1, navy Capt. Chris Dickinson, director of current operations, strategic joint staff, said in an interview. He said 1,681 soldiers, sailors and air force are still in Haiti and officials will be careful to ensure their services are replaced by other agencies as they return to Canada.

Mr. Cannon said a six-member RCMP team is continuing extensive work identifying bodies still being pulled from the ruins of the Jan. 12 earthquake that reduced much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to rubble and devastated other communities. Consular officials are likewise still working to locate 50 Canadians unaccounted for since the quake.

"There will come a time when we'll have to just acknowledge that a number of these people are now deceased," Mr. Cannon said. ". . . It's getting to a tipping point where we will have to make that determination, but we still continue to work on that so we haven't yet made that determination . . . It will mean all the resources have run the gamut."

Mr. Cannon said Canadian Forces personnel are coming home as the emergency phase of international earthquake relief efforts move to longer term assistance programs.

Capt. Dickinson said the military personnel were never intended to stay longer than 30, 40 or 60 days, depending on their assignments. HMCS Halifax was due home for a refit to extend its lifespan and other personnel and equipment are needed as Canadian Forces prepare for a new rotation into Afghanistan, among other assignments.

The Armed Forces have evacuated Canadian and U.S. citizens and provided medical aid and security for distribution of food aid as part of the Canadian aid effort.

Haitian President Rene Preval has said the death toll in Haiti could reach 300,000. More than a million Haitians are sleeping in the streets and the onset of the rainy season has begun to make dignified life impossible for them.

 

[old medic]

Canadian soldiers leaving Haiti swap relief efforts for combat training\
By Matthew Fisher,
Canwest News Service
23 Feb 2010
link: http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=2601489

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Soldiers of the Royal 22nd Regiment will have only two weeks before they have to switch their focus from providing emergency relief in Haiti to intensive combat training for a tour in Afghanistan, the commander of all Canadian troops overseas says.

"There are not exact day-to-day timelines, but unless there is direction from the government through the chief of defence staff, we are leaving Haiti," Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard said Tuesday at the end of a brief visit with Canadian troops in Kandahar.

The returning soldiers will have "two good weeks of leave" in Canada in April before they begin preparing for their deployment to the south Asia country where 140 Canadian soldiers have died since 2002.

Although most Canadian forces in Haiti will be leaving over the next few weeks, "there are no exact day-to-day timelines," because there might be delays, the three-leaf general said. This was because the departure of the Canadians was linked to the arrival of non-governmental organizations to run what is now a military field hospital and a UN force of about 1,500 troops who are to replace military field engineers.

At the peak of the Haiti relief operation, which was in response to a devastating earthquake in mid-January, Canada had slightly more than 2,000 Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen in the Caribbean nation, Lt.-Gen. Lessard said. Those numbers began to fall when HMCS Halifax left Haitian waters on Saturday.

Lt.-Gen. Lessard has been visiting Afghanistan during a period when NATO has been reeling from a series of blunders that have caused a high number of civilian casualties. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has repeatedly apologized for attacks such as one on Sunday in which 27 civilians were killed when aircraft fired at a convoy that was believed to have been carrying Taliban.

Canada has had relatively few incidents lately involving civilian casualties compared with other countries such as the U.S., the Netherlands and Germany. This may be because even before McChrystal announced tough new engagement rules last year to try to reduce the number of such mishaps, Canadian commanders had constantly emphasized that troops had to make certain that no civilians were in their field of fire.

"In an insurgency, you want to support the population [so] you have got to be careful," Lt.-Gen. Lessard said. "What you want to avoid is [civilian casualties]."

However, Lt.-Gen. Lessard, who was an infantryman for several decades, added: "We should not be lecturing anyone. In our early years here, we had civilian casualties. The troops and the lead force generator, the commander of the army, learned from these incidents. We put a great emphasis on cultural awareness and leadership training."

Another of Gen. McChrystal's themes connected to his campaign to reduce civilian casualties is a need to get out more among the people.

From what he had seen this week in Panjwaii, where most Canadian soldiers now live with Afghan troops in villages, and from what he had been told by Maj.-Gen. Nick Carter, the British officer who is the senior NATO commander in the south, "we really get it in terms of population-centric counter-insurgency," Lt.-Gen. Lessard said. "I would argue that our battle group is second to none . . . We are doing really, really well."

 

[old medic]

Canadian navy ship returns from deployment to Haiti
The Canadian Press
02 March 2010
copy at: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100302/haiti_ship_100302/20100302?hub=Canada

HALIFAX — Crew aboard the navy ship HMCS Halifax say there's still years' worth of work to be done in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, but they believe Canadians have made a difference.

The 225 crew members aboard the frigate returned to Halifax today after a six-week deployment to Jacmel, where they provided humanitarian relief.

Lt. Andrew Tunstall says he felt satisfied after looking at the smiling faces of the Haitians who received fresh water and sanitation supplies.

Hundreds of family and friends gathered at the navy dockyard in Halifax along with a military band to welcome the ship home.

Clutching a sign that read "Welcome home Daddy," Lisa Moss waited anxiously for her husband alongside their two sons, aged seven and 13.

Moss says she can't be anything but proud of the work her husband has done.

The ship was sent to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in January that killed about 200,000 people.

The military sent two of its Halifax-based ships to Haiti -- the Halifax and the destroyer HMCS Athabaskan

 

[old medic]

MacKay promises Haiti long-term Canadian support
By Jessica Leeder
07 March 2010

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/project-jacmel/mackay-promises-haiti-long-term-canadian-support/article1492893/

Although Canada's military has begun the slow process of withdrawing more than 1,500 troops who have been helping to stabilize this earthquake-ravaged country since January, Haiti will not be “left behind” Defense Minister Peter MacKay promised the nation yesterday.

“We're here for the long term,” he said following an afternoon visit to a Jacmel orphanage Canadian soldiers have been helping rebuild.

“While the military are starting to transition now, this is happening for good reason.”

The military effort here was originally intended to help bridge the 30 to 60 days that were projected as the emergency phase, during which the population's most critical needs were water production and the establishment of shelters for a newly homeless population. In recent weeks, that phase has begun to wind down: the need for water among the general population is less desperate and lineups at the tented medical clinics established by Canadian Forces personnel have grown distinctly shorter.

HMCS Halifax left Jacmel's port more than a week ago to return to Canada; HMCS Athabaskan, the naval destroyer that has been stationed off the coast of badly ruined Leogane, was told yesterday it too can prepare to depart Haiti. The ship's departure date is March 10.

The drawing down is already causing anxiety to mount among residents of Jacmel, many of whom are concerned about what will happen when the Canadian military pulls out of the city they've done so much to get back on its feet.

“Now that we know the Canadians are leaving, everybody is talking – everybody is complaining,” said Jacky Khawly, a local business owner with family ties to Canada's Governor General. “We know we have to start to mobilize.”

Mr. MacKay was clear that Canada's effort isn't winding down. It is, however, changing gears.

“The military impact was important. It was the first wave of aid,” he said. “Now we'll get on with the important reconstruction and working with the government of Haiti and the international community to see that the aid continues so that this is not a country left behind as has been the history.”

The Canadian Forces' first step in that direction will be to immediately double the manpower devoted to MINUSTAH, the United Nations' ongoing mission in Haiti. Before the earthquake five officers were assigned to the mission in Port-au-Prince. That number will double immediately for the next six months and may continue for longer depending on whether there is a need.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Another VIP visitor is arriving today, according to this report, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from the CBC web site:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/08/governor-general-haiti-women.html

Governor General travels to Haiti

Monday, March 8, 2010

CBC News

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean is travelling to Haiti Monday to visit communities that were shattered by the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed 200,000 people and left millions homeless.

Jean, who was born in Haiti, is scheduled to arrive in the capital Port-au-Prince at 8 a.m. local time.

On her blog, Jean said she has no illusions about what she’ll find when she arrives in Haiti.

"I dread all the things I need to absorb, to bear and to encounter," Jean wrote in a blog item posted Sunday, a few hours before her departure.

Jean will be greeted Monday at the Port-au-Prince airport by President Rene Preval, and will travel with him to see the presidential palace, which was badly damaged in the quake.

Jean to visit women's groups

The Governor General’s visit coincides with International Women’s Day, and Jean is scheduled to meet with women’s groups Monday morning to send a message about the role women can play in reconstruction efforts.

“I chose to arrive on March 8, International Women’s Day, because we must remember that hope lies with women, that without their involvement, perspectives and solutions, it would all be for naught; nothing would be viable,” Jean said in her blog post.

“I want to support that which is on the horizon, beyond the rubble.”

Jean’s trip to Haiti will end Tuesday with a visit to her hometown of Jacmel, where she will visit Canadian aid projects.

After her visit to Haiti, Jean makes a one-day state visit next door in the Dominican Republic to thank that country for its efforts in helping Haiti.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a brief visit to Haiti in February, and Defence Minister Peter MacKay wrapped up a two-day visit to Haiti on Sunday, where he visited 1,500 Canadian troops who are helping to rebuild the earthquake-ravaged country.

MacKay visited military personnel at medical facilities and temporary camps.

With files from The Canadian Press

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/08/governor-general-haiti-women.html#ixzz0haN1mWSM

 

[old medic]

Quebec soldiers return from Haiti
08 March 2010
ctvmontreal.ca

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100308/mtl_quebec_soldiers_haiti100308/20100308?hub=Montreal

About 100 Canadian soldiers stationed in earthquake ravaged Haiti returned home to Quebec City on Sunday evening to hugs, kisses and tears at Jean-Lesage airport.

The 850 troops from Canadian Forces Base Valcartier had spent nearly two months in the devastated Caribbean nation. The soldiers had offered medical help and security.

Valcartier families are accustomed to seeing their loved ones off to war zones such as Afghanistan. They told CTV's John Grant that the Haiti mission was not as stressful.

Front-line help

Brigade group Cmdr. Jean-Marc Lanthier said the Canadian troops were the first responders in Haiti, dealing with the crisis until international aid organizations got established on the ground.

"They were not able to deploy as quickly as us so we filled that void," he said "Now that they are on the ground being synchronized and coordinated by local government and agencies we can pull back. "

Lanthier says the scope of the devastation, and the rebuilding challenge, is overwhelming.

"It's a thousand trucks for a thousand days to clean up the rubble. If you line them up its from Port-au-Prince to Moscow. That's how long the lineup would be."

Pride

But despite the daunting work ahead, the soldiers all said they were proud of their work in Haiti.

"It's my first mission," said one young soldier. "It was nice it was a good experience for my other missions that are coming."

His next mission is in a place that's even more dangerous than Haiti. He ships out to Afghanistan in November.

 

[Edward Campbell]

The Governor General in Haiti:

Governor General Michaelle Jean and her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond watch a woman have her hair combed while visiting a displaced-persons camp in Leogane, Haiti. Jean arrived for her first visit since the devastating earthquake.
The Canadian Press

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