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Canadian flags fly in Lousiana in tribute to Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue team

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REUTERS/Jason Reed

I’m still smarting from the abject lack of Canadian media coverage of our fabulous team of heroic rescuers from Canada who were among the first on the scene in Louisiana, bravely and effectively rescuing people and saving scores of lives.  I’ve blogged about the team here, here, and here.

Even after all this time, the lame news media in Canada has still largely failed but to barely notice these heroes.  Yet the al Reuters media company in the U.S. (awfully left-wing and anti-Bush though they are) has noticed and bothered to highlight it, as have Louisiana residents and government officials in the U.S. 

And once again the team is getting more famous in the U.S. than in Canada. 

Those news hounds who are astute will already have predicted that al Reuters uses the story as yet another jumping off point to wrongly and unfairly criticize President Bush for the generally slow and disorganized rescue response, because that’s what al Reuters does as another “fair and balanced” far-left liberal news media organization, but at least al Reuters‘ story today on the news wires speaks of the heartfelt thanks the Americans feel for this noble little team’s efforts (the above picture accompanies the story).  That’s more than I can say for any Canadian news media coverage.  Where’s the Globe and Mail on this?

I’m hard-pressed to find equal coverage in Canada.  And once again, as I did in my last blog entry about this, I have to ask regarding the Canadian news media:  What is wrong with these people?

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) – A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday.

The Canadians beat both the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. disaster response department, to St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans, where flood waters are still 8 feet deep in places, Sen. Walter Boasso said.

“Fabulous, fabulous guys,” Boasso said. “They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people.”

“We’ve got Canadian flags flying everywhere.”

[…] Boasso said U.S. authorities began airdropping relief supplies to St. Bernard last Wednesday, the same day the Canadian rescue team of about 50 members arrived from Vancouver, nearly 2,200 miles away.

“They chartered a plane and flew down,” he said.

[…] As for the Canadians, Boasso gave thanks for their quick work.

“They were so glad to be here,” he said. “They’re still here. They are actually going door-to-door looking in the attics” for people to rescue, he said.

I do believe the Senator has some facts wrong—the team arrived back in Vancouver two days ago.  But you know—he’s a politician on a mission to discredit the federal government response and stick up for Louisiana’s response. 

Here’s the caption accompanying the picture in the al Reuters story (note the bias even in the picture caption!):

In this file picture, rescue workers from Vancouver, Canada, try to convince a resident of Chalmette, a community 7 miles (11 km) east of New Orleans, to evacuate his home, September 3, 2005. A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday. The Canadians beat both the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. disaster response department, to St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans, where flood waters are still 8 feet deep in places, Sen. Walter Boasso said.

They fail to mention that the U.S. Army is not the first responders in any emergency, nor is FEMA—it is the local police and the Louisiana National Guard, which is under the control of the (Democratic Party) state Governor, not the President of the United States.

Joel Johannesen
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