Since (if I understand liberals correctly and I think that I do) President George Bush caused those hurricanes in the U.S. last month and then kicked up his feet and watched as black people—and only black people—died on rooftops, I’m wondering if the liberals of North America will blame Paul Martin for being totally unprepared for natural disasters here.
Not only has our military and entire national defence been decimated over the course of the past 12 years or so, but apparently even the rudimentary volunteer corps of Canada are not on Ottawa’s radar screens, insofar as coordinated rescue missions in natural disasters (to say nothing of terrorist attacks—which will most certainly be blamed on President Bush—or the nearest conservative person).
The bitter irony for the liberals, if the truth were known, is that I have no doubt at all whatsoever that the geniuses in Ottawa’s “emergency preparedness” headquarters facility secretariat programme establishment and resource centre of excellence ….. has the phone number for “The U.S.A.” on their speed dials.
On a related note, it has now come out that the reason the Urban Search and Rescue team from Vancouver (I blogged about them multiple times) got to Louisiana so fast (on a plane within three hours of the call) was that they actually breached normal protocol and avoided the federal bureaucracy altogether. They simply got on a plane and went. Otherwise they’d have remained in Vancouver, sitting there waiting for clearance from the liberal mandarins in Ottawa, before being given the big thumbs-up to go and help on an “emergency” basis like Canada’s crack Disaster Assistance Response Team (“DART”!), which left Canada two weeks late and then simply got in the way in southeast Asia early this year. I should also note that the same Urban Search and Rescue team literally begged Ottawa to send them to the tsunami relief effort in Asia and they never got the OK at all.
Emergency volunteers not considered in national crisis plans
CALGARY (CP) – The skills of thousands of emergency volunteers are being ignored in official disaster plans, says a veteran search and rescue co-ordinator.
Yet those volunteers would likely be among the first on scene in a crisis, said Monica Ahlstrom, past-president of the Search And Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada.
“I don’t know anybody who has done any of these studies who have gotten hold of us to see how we fit in and there’s 20,000 of us across the country,” said Ahlstrom.
Last week, a report from military historian Jack Granatstein said Canada lacks a co-ordinated crisis plan for soldiers and reservists to work together in war or a natural disaster. It’s the latest document to question the country’s ability to cope with the aftermath of civil or natural disaster.
[…] Ahlstrom has spoken with three ministers of national defence about the volunteer role in civil emergency. She’s frustrated that no one in charge of the plans seems to realize the value of the resource.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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