NATIONAL NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / SOMMAIRE DES NOUVELLES NATIONALES
ADM(PA) / SMA(AP)
January 20, 2010 / le 20 janvier 2010
MINISTER / LE MINISTRE
Cabinet Shuffle
Stephen Harper took the first step toward turning off the taps of deficit spending in Ottawa, using a
cabinet shuffle to designate the new face of fiscal restraint in Canada. The shuffle involved 11 MPs and
one senator. Peter MacKay (N.S.) stays as national defence, but loses minister of state (Atlantic
Gateway) (S. Chase / B. Curry: G&M A1; D. Akin: Ctz A3, EJ A1, CH A3, VSun B2, WStar A10; CP: HCH
A1, HS A9; M. Rabson: WFP A3).
New Brunswick MP Keith Ashfield will head up the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to allow
Defence Minister Peter MacKay to focus on Afghanistan and allegations of detainee abuse (CP: HCH
A3; Q. Casey: NBTJ B1).
Remaniement ministériel
Le remaniement ministériel d’hier aura vu neuf ministres changer de chaise, mais les poids lourds du
cabinet restent en place. Ainsi, Peter MacKay demeure à la Défense, malgré les critiques de l'Opposition
dans le dossier des prisonniers afghans transférés par l'armée canadienne. Lawrence Cannon conserve
les Affaires étrangères et Jim Flaherty reste aux Finances (Dr 28, Dv A3, AN 6, VE 21).
Cabinet Shuffle: Commentary
Halifax Chronicle-Herald editorial: Most Canadians would be hard-pressed to name five members of the
federal cabinet. As a result of Tuesday's shuffle, none of the most familiar faces who might spring to mind
in a pop quiz - like Finance Minister Jim Flaherty or Defence Minister Peter MacKay - are going
anywhere. By those standards, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's rearranging of the chess board - even
though it involved 10 pieces - was a minor affair. Still, there is little doubt that Mr. MacKay will remain the
regional kingpin and that the lightening of his load had more to do with satisfying the needs of New
Brunswick than dissatisfaction with the defence minister's performance (HCH A10).
Don Martin: Not one of the big five ministers -- Jim Flaherty in finance, Rob Nicholson in justice, Peter
MacKay in defence, Lawrence Cannon in foreign affairs and environment's Prentice -- had to order a
business card reprint. That reflects Mr. Harper's belief that the large issues in those ministries are either
already in steady hands or not necessarily vote-changers. Mr. MacKay in particular has tripped over his
tongue a number of times on the Afghan detainee issue, yet seems to have the prime minister's
confidence to continue stonewalling that controversy, although he got a tap on the wrist by having his
regional payola duties taken away. With his mid-sized second-tier tweak, the prime minister had opted to
play it safe. He has fielded a front bench that can handle any eventuality -- be it an election showdown
this spring or as a slightly improved cabinet governing over a cowering opposition trio for another year
(Ctz A3, Gaz A12; no mention of the Minister: CH A3).
Barbara Yaffe: The government's most influential ministers -- finance's Jim Flaherty, Jim Baird in transport
and Peter MacKay in defence -- remain in place. The shuffle leaves the Harper government in good
shape for the return of Parliament March 3, when the focus is expected to be on the economy.
Conservatives, given their minority status, also wanted to reboot in anticipation of a possible election later
in the year. Polls lately have shown the government's support level dropping, from the 38 per cent range
down to about 30 per cent, so any initiative that helps to put a new face on the old crowd will be
considered potentially helpful (VSun A1).
Haiti Aid Mission
Canada is pitching in another $80 million to help humanitarian efforts in Haiti, bringing the total
contribution since last week's 7.0 quake to $135 million. International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda
announced Tuesday $60 million more will go to the UN appeal to help deliver essential services to three
million Haitians. Of those funds, $39 million will go to food security and $15 million to UNICEF for health,
shelter and water sanitation services. Updating the military mission on the ground, Defence Minister
Peter MacKay said Canadian Forces personnel will be focused on the hard-hit area of Leogane and
Jacmel, where Canada's DART team was the first international assistance to arrive (K. Harris: OSun 5,
TSun 25, ESun 17, CSun 27, KWS 12, LFP B1; CP, S. Thorne: HCH B1, CG B4, SJT A10).
Round-the-clock efforts are being made to repair an airport in Jacmel - at the heart of the Canadian
rescue effort in Haiti - to allow heavy-lift military aircraft to land with tonnes of humanitarian items.
Hundreds of Canadian forces personnel began arriving earlier Tuesday in Jacmel, Governor General
Michaelle Jean's hometown. "The situation there has been described as dire," Defence Minister Peter
MacKay said. "Many people in the region were injured, deprived of food and water and unable to access
essential services." Mr. Mackay added: "HMCS Halifax will be stationed offshore from Jacmel while
HMCS Athabaskan will drop anchor just around the corner from Port-au-Prince at the town of Leogane
near the epicentre of the earthquake" (R. Brennan: TStar A17)
The runway is short and there is no control tower. But the tiny landing strip at Jacmel on Haiti's south
coast has become a lifeline to a region that was all but levelled by last week's earthquake. A Canadian C130 Hercules set down at Jacmel's airport yesterday, the first plane from any country to reach people cut
off from the aid that is arriving, albeit slowly, in the capital of Port-au-Prince. At about the same time, the
frigate HMCS Halifax pulled near to Jacmel's shallow port and began sending troops to the garbagestrewn shores on inflatable boats. By last night, 1,000 of Canada's troops, sailors and air personnel had
arrived in the tiny, devastated nation. Hundreds more will join them in the next 36 hours. LGen Andrew
Leslie, the chief of land staff for the Canadian military, said logistics have been a problem. The airport at
Port-au-Prince had become ``a choke point'' for the international response. The duration of the mission,
which will soon be two-thirds the size of the mission in Afghanistan, is unknown. Defence Minister Peter
MacKay said he expects it will last a maximum of two to three months. The primary job will be security as
well as delivering medical aid and emergency supplies of food and water. For now, it also includes
rescuing Canadians. The federal government, meanwhile, continues to make plans for a meeting next
week in Montreal of the Friends of Haiti, an informal group of countries that have expressed strong
interest in Haitian development (G. Galloway: G&M A14).
International relief efforts to help the hundreds of thousands of people injured, hungry and left homeless
after last week's devastating Haitian earthquake got a big lift on Tuesday with the arrival of added troops,
the promise of thousands more, and a pledge to provide millions of dollars in additional aid. In an effort to
support earthquake relief and maintain security, the United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed
to boost the number of UN troops and police in the country by 3,500. There are 9,000 members of the UN
stabilization force in Haiti. The additional troops and police will be deployed with a six-month mandate. All
15 members of the Security Council voted in favour of the resolution, which said the increase was a
recognition of "the dire circumstances and urgent need for a response," reported Reuters. The Canadian
effort also ramped up Tuesday. Minister Peter MacKay said Canadian troops had begun flying into the
southern coastal town of Jacmel -- bypassing the clogged airport in the country's Port-au-Prince (M. Iype /
J. O’Neill: VSun B1, WStar B1, VProv A20).
Upward of five flights are leaving 8 Wing at CFB Trenton daily, carrying relief supplies, equipment and
troops bound to Haiti. The massive deployment, dubbed by the military as Operation Hestia, involves the
around-the-clock efforts of between 500 and 800 base personnel. Wing Operations Officer LCol Dave
Murphy said yesterday 8 Wing has not undertaken such a large operation since the massive airlift to East
Timor in 2005. Five flights left CFB Trenton Monday, carrying personnel, elements of the Disaster
Assistance Response Team (DART), medical and relief supplies and a Griffon search and rescue
helicopter. As LCol Murphy was speaking with reporters on the tarmac, a CC-177 Globemaster and CC130 Hercules were being prepped for loading. Dozens of troops gathered in the air terminal building for
departure. Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced Sunday a light infantry battalion from the Royal
22nd Regiment, based in Valcartier, Que., will be deployed to Haiti. The 1,000-troop unit will include
enough supplies to set up a complete hospital. It also includes a full squadron of engineers in order to
begin repairing some of the infrastructure destroyed in the earthquake (E. Kuglin: KWS 6).
DND Budget
The Defence Department will have to find another $233 million in savings by the end of March but it can't
say where the money is going to come from. The army, navy and air force are already finding $190 million
in savings that will be shifted to priority projects. The latest news of what the department is calling
"adjustments" rather than cuts brings the total savings to $423 million. It is unclear at this point how
various organizations inside the department will be affected. The news is also emerging as the Canadian
Forces take on a large mission in Haiti. Defence Department spokeswoman Kathleen Guillot said: "As
these figures are subject to change over the coming months, a complete picture of the final outcome will
only be available after the end of the current fiscal year." She said the adjustments are a normal part of
federal fiscal management. "It's very routine," Guillot said. "Budget adjustments are not budget cuts," she
added. But soldiers who contacted the Citizen say the moves are budget cuts and are not normal.
Soldiers in reserve units, including those in the Ottawa area, say they have had their budgets trimmed
and training abruptly shut down. Liberal Senator Colin Kenny said the Harper government is doing what
previous Liberal and Conservative regimes have done: saving money by chopping defence budgets. Dan
Dugas, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, played down the adjustments. He said: "They
have more money than they had last year and they'll have more money next year" (D. Pugliese: Ctz A1,
RLP C10; no mention of the Minister: EJ A10).
CDS / CEM
Repatriation of Sgt John Faught
T he body of Sgt John Wayne Faught, a Canadian soldier who died Saturday in Afghanistan, returned to
Canadian soil Tuesday afternoon. Sgt Faught, 44, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was killed by a
landmine while leading his unit on foot patrol near Nakhoney, about 15 kilometres south of Kandahar, in
the troubled Panjwaii region. Sgt Faught's flag-draped coffin returned to Canadian Forces Base Trenton
at 2 p.m. Tuesday local time while his family members and dignitaries -- including Gov Gen Michaelle
Jean and Chief of Defence Staff Gen Walt Natynczyk -- looked on. BGen Daniel Menard described Sgt
Faught as a "career soldier" who was "very much a father figure" to the younger troops under his
command (CNS: CH A2, NP A6, EJ A10, RLP C10; QMI, E. Mountney: ESun 29, LFP B3; CP: TSun 14,
CSun 24, HCH B3).
Close to 140 students lined up along Tuesday afternoon to watch as another fallen solider made their way
down Repatriation Row. The students of V.P. Carswell Public School stood and watched as the
motorcade carrying the body of Sgt. John Faught, 44, made its way down Hamilton Rd. after his
repatriation ceremony held earlier at CFB Trenton (E. Mountney: KWS 9).
Funérailles du soldat Faught
Recouvert du drapeau unifolié, le cercueil du plus récent soldat canadien tombé en Afghanistan est
arrivé, hier, à la base des Forces armées canadiennes de Trenton, en Ontario, accueilli par la famille de
la victime et la gouverneure générale. Le sergent John Faught a été tué samedi à Panjwaii, dans la
province de Kandahar, par un engin explosif improvisé (AN 15).
Haiti / Haiti
Canada’s Aid Mission
In Ottawa yesterday, leaders of four Canadian relief organizations said they are managing to help
thousands of people despite an aid supply bottleneck at the Port-au-Prince airport and delays in coordinating international efforts. Canadian Forces personnel set to work in Jacmel, delivering food, water
and medical assistance from HMCS Halifax offshore and through the DART -- Disaster Assistance
Response Team -- which travelled from Port-au-Prince. Even as the U.S. and UN trumpeted the arrival of
more aid and transportation, the situation for ordinary Haitians remained precarious. Despite the
continued steady arrival of civilian and military aid flights, food trucks were a scarce sight in the worst-hit
areas of Port-au-Prince. Haitian officials say the death toll from the quake was likely to be between
100,000 and 200,000, and that 75,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves (J. O’Neill: Gaz A4, VTC
A11).
A week after Haiti's capital was flattened by a 7.0 earthquake, fears that sporadic violence might engulf
Port-au-Prince escalated Tuesday as victims grew increasingly desperate for food and water. U.S. army
Maj. Daniel Allyn reported "emerging incidents of instability" throughout the city, where U.S. Marines
made a dramatic onshore arrival to mark the increased American security presence. About 800 of 2,200
marines aboard the USS Bataan began deploying onshore to begin supporting aid efforts in areas west of
Port-au-Prince. Separately, members of the 82nd Airborne landed near Haiti's destroyed presidential
palace to take control of the city's overburdened General Hospital -- amid cheers from Haitians watching
the spectacle. It was the most visible sign yet that U.S. forces were seeking to relieve -- or at least
supplement -- the 9,000 UN peacekeepers who risk being overwhelmed by security challenges created in
the quake's aftermath (S. Alberts / J. Barrera / J. O’Neill: CH A7, Ctz A8, Gaz A2, EJ A5, RLP A8, SSP
D7).
A scant 28 minutes after landing, the special emergency airport operations teams of the U.S. Air Force
had taken control of Haitian airspace. They were sorting out the dangerous jumble of television news
helicopters, aging propeller planes full of aid, but short of fuel, and military transports from as far away as
China - all jockeying to be ``first in.'' That was barely 24 hours after the massive earthquake levelled much
of Port-au-Prince but miraculously left the country's longest runway unscathed. That ribbon of concrete is
now Haiti's overstretched lifeline. Today, more than 180 flights - included several dozen hulking C-17s
capable of carrying 100 tonnes of aid - are expected to arrive in an intricate aerial and constantly rechoreographed dance. Despite transforming the airport into a round-the-clock base coping with tens of
thousands of tonnes of food, fuel, medicines while evacuating several thousand foreign nationals and
hundreds of seriously injured, howls of complaints have threatened to drown the roar of jet engines (P.
Koring: G&M A8).
A boat arrived just off the coast of Jacmel in the morning yesterday and off came teams of blue-shirted
Canadian sailors with shovels, gloves and an urgency after setting sail from Halifax last Wednesday.
They were welcomed by dozens of men who pointed them to the areas of greatest need. Meanwhile in
Leogane, about 30 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince, around 50 troops from HMCS Athabaskan arrived
in inflatable Zodiac boats Tuesday before touring the tent city outside the college. As they walked through
the camp, most of the soldiers were armed with clipboards and phones rather than guns. From dawn to
noon the Canadians heaved boulders that had tumbled into the road between Jacmel's food distribution
centre and the city centre after the earthquake. Backlogs of food, medicine, tents, blankets and other
supplies that have come into the port on ships were set to start rolling into the streets. The very arrival of
Canadian soldiers is cause for celebration in this country. Locals crowded the Jacmel shore with a mix of
curiosity and relief as HMCS Halifax unloaded its sailors and aid (A. Woods: TStar A1, HS A6).
Canadian sailors landed on the shores of the tiny agricultural town of Leogane Tuesday -- an area nearly
completely wiped out by Haiti's recent earthquake. As large crowds of Haitians looked on from the beach,
two dozen sailors from the HMCS Athabaskan arrived by inflatable motorboat. Locals said this was the
first assistance they had seen, as most of the international effort focuses on Port-au-Prince. "I am so
happy to see the Canadians here," said Saintulia Metelus. "Without your help, we won't get out of this
mess." As the sailors stood together facing another crowd of Haitians, leading seaman Andrew MacPhee
said he's a "little taken aback" by the disaster zone and his first time in a third-world country. Waiting for
the sailors is a population living entirely in the streets. Tents made of driftwood, sheets and tarps populate
the downtown area (A. Raj: OSun 5, TSun 25, CSun 27, ESun 17).
Canadian Navy sailors from the HMCS Halifax arrived in Jacmel, south of the Haitian capital of Port-auPrince, Tuesday morning, armed with shovels, picks, crowbars, hammers, saws, generators and hydraulic
tools to clear blocked roads. Jacmel is located 30 km from the capital of Port-au-Prince, where all of the
supplies and medical material sent by Canada are arriving. Making the trek has been doable but it still is
difficult using the road through the mountains. It takes two hours to travel the short distance due to fallen
rocks that damaged the vehicle lane. The Canadian sailors wasted no time getting to work, clearing a
main road that leads to the Jacmel port. The Canadian war ship wasn't able to dock at the Jacmel port
because the water was too shallow. Instead, they stopped about 1 km from the shore and unloaded
troops using small boats (J-L. Lavallee: TSun 25, ESun 17, OSun 5, CSun 27).
Hundreds of thousands of people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti will soon be receiving clean drinking water
thanks to the Canadian military and some Ottawa-born technology. Water-filtration equipment produced
by Seprotech Systems Inc. is en route to Haiti, travelling with Canada's Disaster Assistance Response
Team (DART). The team is also bringing food and medical supplies and is outfitted with three of the
company's emergency Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units. The machines, which are about the
size of an industrial garbage container, are each capable of producing as much as 5,000 litres of potable
water daily (V. Pilieci: Ctz D1).
Aide en Haïti
Des soldats canadiens sont arrivés à Haïti par la voie maritime, hier matin. Le NCSM Athabaskan a pris
la direction de Léogâne, à l'est de Port-au-Prince, alors que le NCSM Halifax a accosté à Jacmel, au sudest de la capitale. "La région Jacmel-Léogâne a été désignée par le gouvernement d'Haïti comme une
priorité pour l'aide internationale, a indiqué en conférence de presse le ministre de la Défense, Peter
MacKay. En plus de porter assistance aux survivants du séisme, les soldats tenteront de réparer la route,
pour l'instant impraticable, qui relie Jacmel à Port-au-Prince. Un contingent de militaires a aussi quitté la
base de Valcartier et un autre départ est prévu aujourd'hui. Au total, près de 2000 soldats canadiens
seront déployés en Haïti (Pr A5, VE 15, LN 36,Dr 3, AN 16, Dv A1).
Un premier groupe de 120 militaires de Valcartier a quitté Québec hier pour prendre part aux efforts
d'aide humanitaire en Haïti. En majorité, il s'agissait de fantassins et des ressources médicales qui se
dirigeaient vers Jacmel. En principe, 800 militaires de Valcartier participeront aux opérations dans les
prochains jours (Sol 8).
Canada Aid Mission: Commentary
Globe and Mail editorial: They were a dull green, but the helicopters hovering over the Haitian presidential
palace bore an unmistakable red, white and blue. For some, a large foreign military presence in Haiti
raises fears of an imperial occupation. But in any disaster that cripples the institutions that provide order
and government, there's a simple formula: Without security, there can be no aid. Before the earthquake,
Haiti was already in effect a protectorate, with no standing military, guarded by a UN stabilization force.
The new foreign military presence, focusing on human security, should be welcomed as an integral part
of the relief effort (G&M A16).
National Post editorial: It's understandable that Alain Joyandet, France's International Co-operation
Minister, would have been frustrated at having a French aid flight carrying a field hospital turned back
from Port-au-Prince's severely overtaxed airport. But no matter how angry he was, it was beyond the pale
for Mr. Joyandet to go to the press and suggest American forces were "occupying" Haiti -- and for
Medecins Sans Frontieres to back him up. When it comes to helping foreigners, the Americans really
can't win for trying. For all Washington's ill-conceived actions in Haiti in the past -- and elsewhere in Latin
America, and in Iraq, and Southeast Asia, and wherever else you care to focus your attention -- there's no
indication that anything underlies its rapid response in Haiti other than heartfelt concern for a close
neighbour. (Nor is there any even remotely plausible reason for any nation to want to annex Haiti.)
Indeed, the United States' reaction to the crisis differs from Canada's only in terms of scale; and if our
situations were reversed, it's safe to say Mr. Joyandet wouldn't have accused Ottawa of indulging its vile
colonialist instincts (NP A12).
Michael Staples: The next few weeks are vital to the safety and well-being of millions of Haitians. Part of
this country's response is a concerted military effort known as Operation HESTIA. If past performances
are used as a measuring stick for success, there can be no doubt that DART will make an enormous and
swift difference in Haiti. Canadian troops are already widely respected in Haiti for their past work in the
region. That, coupled with our quick response in getting to the country and setting up, will not only be
remembered for years to come by residents, it will result in countless lives being saved (FDG C7).
MILITARY POLICE COMPLAINTS COMMISSION / COMMISSION D'EXAMEN DES PLAINTES
CONCERNANT LA POLICE MILITAIRE
No related coverage. / Aucune couverture pertinente.
CANADA IN AFGHANISTAN / LE CANADA EN AFGHANISTAN
Attacks in Afghanistan
Two U.S. service members were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a day
after a brazen Taliban attack on the capital showed militants are stepping up their fight against the U.S.
and its allies. Also Tuesday, Afghan forces increased the number of checkpoints and patrols in the capital
amid public anger over security lapses that enabled a small group of militants mount a series of suicide
explosions and gunbattles the day before. Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh also said the militants
were increasing the number of suicide attacks in populated areas to cover up their weaknesses and to
undermine the leadership of national institutions (AP: ESun 33, CG B7, FDG A8).
The Afghan government is to review its plan for securing Kabul a day after militants launched a series of
commando-style attacks in the heart of the capital, the president's palace said yesterday. It was the most
high-profile attack inside the capital for almost a year and came as President Hamid Karzai was swearing
in cabinet members at his palace only a few hundred metres away. Karzai met the ministers of interior,
defence and national security yesterday to discuss the raids. "In this meeting ... all parts of yesterday's
events were studied and it was agreed that the plan for Kabul's security should be reviewed and
submitted to the president for approval," Karzai's palace said in a statement. The palace did not provide
any more details (Reuters: Gaz A17).
OTHERS / AUTRES
Olympic Security
The Canadian Forces are ready to exercise "lethal force" in a worst-case scenario to defend new air
space security restrictions being imposed during the 2010 Olympic Games. Lt David Lavallee,
spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command, told The Vancouver Sun on Tuesday
that the response to a violation of flight restrictions could range from simple radio contact with the pilot to
the use of Canadian military CF-18 fighter jets and Griffon helicopters. He said: "Suffice to say we will
have aircraft and people ready to respond to violations of the restricted air space. Norad has a graduated
response that can, if necessary, culminate in the use of lethal force." Marine traffic will be subject to no-go
"exclusion zones" around Canada Harbour Place and the media centre in Coal Harbour, the athletes'
village in False Creek, the Richmond oval by the Fraser River, and the Sea to Sky corridor. These areas
will be surrounded by "controlled access zones" which may be entered with approval of 2010s Integrated
Security Unit led by the RCMP (L. Pynn: VSun A1, VTC A9).
Soldier Support Centre Opens in St John’s
A new support facility for ill and injured soldiers opened at Canadian Forces Station St. John's Tuesday
morning. The Joint Personnel Support Unit aims to improve care and recovery and prevent soldiers from
being overlooked. Col. Gerry Blais, the Canadian Forces director of casualty support management,
called the centre a "magnificent achievement." He said the facility is an improvement over the past when
various support services operated on their own. With the unit, he said things will be better co-ordinated
(S. Bartlett: SJT A5).
Facture salée
La facture d'entretien des avions de transport militaire C-130J sera beaucoup plus salée que prévu. Le
coût total sur 20 ans ne sera pas de 1,7 milliard de dollars, mais bien de 2,5 milliards, soit un bond de
800 millions. Le milieu de la défense a été estomaqué mercredi de voir tomber un communiqué de presse
alambiqué au moment où tous les regards étaient tournés vers la catastrophe en Haïti. Une porte-parole
au ministère de la Défense, Lianne Lebel, affirme que le gouvernement a fait un choix approprié (Dv A1).
Section: National News
Outlet: The Globe And Mail
Byline: STEVEN CHASE AND BILL CURRY
Headline: With shuffle, PM makes first move to wind down stimulus
Page: A1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Stephen Harper took the first step toward turning off the taps of deficit spending in Ottawa, using a
cabinet shuffle to designate the new face of fiscal restraint in Canada.
Stockwell Day, a former Alberta finance minister with a reputation for fiscal rectitude, must now help
tackle what some observers say is a structural, or permanent, deficit that cannot be erased without $19billion in cuts to annual spending.
His elevation to President of Treasury Board - overseer of government spending - was part of a federal
cabinet shuffle yesterday that saw 12 portfolios change hands, from Public Safety to Revenue.
It featured two demotions: Lisa Raitt was downgraded to Labour from Natural Resources after a string of
2009 gaffes, while Peter Van Loan was sent to International Trade to replace Mr. Day after what senior
officials say was a disappointing run in the Public Safety portfolio.
But Mr. Day's appointment looms largest as the Tories prepare for a March 4 budget and years of trying
to balance the books - which are $56-billion in the red this year.
Governments around the world are struggling with when and how to turn off the stimulus spending taps,
for fear that an ill-timed shutdown could prolong the downturn or kill fresh economic growth.
The Harper government's plan is to end stimulus spending by March 31, 2011, and Mr. Day's job will be
to help plan for the restraint that follows.
Said to be among Mr. Harper's favourite ministers, Mr. Day will be the new Dr. No in Ottawa: the man
whose job is to rain on colleagues' spending plans. It's a role he will relish. When he was treasurer in
Alberta, Mr. Day famously wore a loonie pinned to his lapel to recognize how hard taxpayers work for
their ``sweat-soaked'' dollars
Yesterday, he warned of a tighter lid on spending. ``I think we'll be hearing two words: no and no,'' Mr.
Day told reporters.
His promotion is the latest stage in a comeback for the Okanagan-Coquihalla MP whose political career
took a nosedive between 2000 to 2002. As leader of the Canadian Alliance, he lost a federal election to
Jean Chrétien, later faced rebellion by some caucus MPs - and then went on to lose the helm of his party
to Stephen Harper.
Mr. Harper and his office went out of their way to underline the importance of Mr. Day's appointment - an
effort that suggests the Treasury Board post is being elevated in importance. It also signals that the Prime
Minister's Office has decided it can't rely solely on Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to preach restraint.
The Prime Minister noted that Mr. Day has ``distinguished himself in every portfolio he has held'' and
predicted he will play a ``critical role in overseeing government expenditures.''
Mr. Day said Conservative MPs are now canvassing Canadians on how to make cuts, leading up to a
March 4 budget that will lay out ``introductory notions'' on how to get back to a balanced budget.
The Conservatives must find $19-billion a year in savings to balance the books by 2014 without raising
taxes, according to the latest analysis from Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.
Mr. Flaherty has disagreed, predicting that future economic growth and holding down increases in
program spending will do the job. (The minister has ruled out tax increases, as well as cuts to transfers to
the provinces or individuals.)
Mr. Day's job will be to seek savings in the $100-billion program budget.
But a recent analysis by two former Finance Department insiders warns that much of this $100-billion is
untouchable - either legally or politically.
Scott Clark, who was deputy minister of finance from 1997 to 2000 and associate deputy minister before
that, and the department's former director of fiscal policy, Peter DeVries, conclude that public-service
salaries and benefits are the only significant area left to cut. These amount to just under $35-billion a
year, according to the government's latest Public Accounts.
In reaction to the cabinet shuffle, federal public-service union leaders spoke of starting off on the right foot
with Mr. Day and noted that he got along well with employees in his past portfolios.
Yet Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said his
members are also aware of his reputation as a cost-cutter.
``You can read into it that maybe the Prime Minister is planning on some difficult times ahead for the
public service. Yes, it concerns me,'' he said. ``I think there's always the propensity for a government to
make political hay out of reductions in the public service.''
******
CABINET SHUFFLE / WHO'S UP / WHO'S DOWN
Several portfolios have changed hands under Stephen Harper's cabinet shuffle, as Parliament positions
itself to deal with a new period of fiscal restraint. We analyze how surprising the changes were, who's
benefited most
and who's left out in the cold.
MORE INFLUENCE
Vic Toews
Public Safety
Law-and-order politician moves on from Treasury
Rona Ambrose
Public Works
After a time out in Labour, another run at a major portfolio
Christian Paradis
Natural Resources
Quebecker moves from Public Works to face his home province's views on western petro development
MORE SURPRISING
Keith Ashfield
National Revenue, ACOA
Rookie backbencher with New Brunswick cabinet experience
LESS SURPRISING
Lisa Raitt
Labour
Dropped from Natural Resouces after controversy over isotopes and misplaced documents.
Jean-Pierre Blackburn
Veterans Affairs
From Revenue to a quiet portfolio now heating up
LESS INFLUENCE
Rob Moore
Small Business
Minor promotion for New Brunswick backbencher
Peter Van Loan
Trade
Dropping down after a bumpy ride in Public Safety
TRISH McALASTER / THE GLOBE AND MAIL
******
BEHIND THE SHUFFLE
Diane Ablonczy Goes to: Minister of State for Seniors, from Minister of State for Small Business and
Tourism
Why: The PM said it is time for the Alberta lawyer to work on something new; seniors are seen as an
important constituency.
Rona Ambrose Goes to: Public Works, from Labour
Why: Ms. Ambrose was demoted in 2007 after a rough year at Environment but the 40-year-old former
civil servant's reputation for solid behind-the-scenes management earns a second chance in a senior
department.
Keith Ashfield
Goes to: Revenue, with responsibility for Atlantic Gateway, keeping responsibility for the Atlantic Canada
Opportunities Agency. Why: The resignation of Greg Thompson from cabinet (Veteran's Affairs) created
an opening for Mr. Ashfield, who represents the riding of Fredericton. It also opened a spot for 35-yearold lawyer and fellow New Brunswicker Rob Moore, who becomes Minister of State for Small Business
and Tourism.
Jean-Pierre Blackburn
Goes to: Veterans Affairs, from Revenue
Why: Mr. Blackburn, 61, fills Mr. Thompson's chair and enhances Quebec's link to the military.
Stockwell Day
Goes to: President of the Treasury Board, from International Trade Why: Mr. Day has a reputation as a
cost-cutter and is trusted by the Prime Minister.
Christian Paradis
Goes to: Natural Resources, from Public Works Why: The senior Quebec minister will work with
Environment Minister Jim Prentice, an Albertan, to bridge the tension between two key provinces on
environment and energy issues. Lisa Raitt
Goes to: Labour, from Natural Resources Why: Controversy.
Vic Toews
Goes to: Public Safety, from Treasury Board President Why: Mr. Toews, the Harper government's first
justice minister, returns to a law-and-order post and is expected to work well with the Americans on
security files.
Peter Van Loan
Goes to: International Trade from Public Safety. Why: Mr. Van Loan was publicly at odds at times with
senior members of CSIS and the RCMP. Survivors
Finance minister Jim Flaherty and Human Resources Minister Diane Finley , who are respectively in
charge of this year's budget and EI programs, stay put.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay , Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and International CoOperation Minister Bev Oda are key to Canada's leading role in the response to the Haitian earthquake.
House Leader Jay Hill and Chief Government Whip Gordon O'Connor run the House more smoothly than
most might expect. Mr. O'Connor keeps Tory MPs out of trouble while Mr. Hill, as main contact with the
other parties, has the opposition's respect.
Bill Curry and Jill Mahoney
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: David Akin
Outlet: The Ottawa Citizen
Illustrations:
-in
ceremony for new ministers at Rideau Hall on Tuesday. From left, newly appointed Veterans Affairs
Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Treasury Board President Stockwell Day and Public Safety Minister Vic
Toews are shown in the background.
Headline: Shuffle a prelude to deficit battle; Day heads to Treasury Board; Toews to tackle safety review
Page: A3
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: Canwest News Service
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has designated Stockwell Day to lead a deficit-busting cost-cutting
exercise, a move that was part of a broad cabinet shuffle Tuesday that involved 11 MPs and one senator.
Day, 59, becomes president of the Treasury Board, the cabinet minister responsible for government
spending policies and largely responsible for the civil service. He had been minister of international trade.
Day, who once unsuccessfully fought Harper for the leadership of what would become the Conservative
party, was a provincial finance minister in Alberta before becoming an MP. He now represents the B.C.
riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla.
"We are planning for deficit reduction once the economy has recovered and we are building for future jobs
and economic growth," Harper told reporters outside Rideau Hall. "This is the cabinet that will lead us
through the second and final phase of our economic action plan."
Day could have a difficult time finding savings. Spending in Harper's fourth fiscal year since being elected
in 2006 is up nearly 14 per cent compared to the previous year, mostly because of the massive stimulus
program brought in to fight the recession. But even before that, spending growth averaged 4.3 per cent
per year for the Conservatives' first three years in office. By comparison, annual spending growth for the
last three years the Liberals were in office averaged 4.1 per cent.
"One of the considerations is going to be that we will be looking at our roadmap to a balanced budget in
the years ahead," Day said.
At Treasury Board, Day replaces Manitoba MP Vic Toews, who becomes public safety minister, another
job in cabinet that will be a central part of the agenda Harper will unveil in his speech from the throne in
March. The National Post published details Tuesday of a copy of a so-called "mandate letter" it obtained
that had been given several weeks ago to Toews' predecessor, Peter Van Loan. Mandate letters are
issued from time to time to each cabinet member and contain what are essentially the minister's marching
orders from the prime minister.
The report said Van Loan's mandate from Harper was to begin the most sweeping review since 9/11 of
the country's public safety system. That job will now fall to Toews, a lawyer who first entered Harper's
cabinet in 2006 as justice minister.
Van Loan, an Ontario MP, will take Day's spot as minister of international trade.
Harper also made a big change when it comes to the cabinet minister responsible for Canada's energy
sector and nuclear file. He named up-and-coming Quebecer Christian Paradis as minister of natural
resources, replacing Ontario MP Lisa Raitt.
Paradis, 36, had been minister of public works. He represents a riding in Quebec's eastern townships that
is home to the country's only asbestos mines and now becomes, along with Environment Minister Jim
Prentice, a key player in regulating development of Canada's mineral assets, including the Alberta
oilsands. The oilsands are one of Canada's biggest generators of export wealth, but also one of the
country's biggest sources of greenhouse gases.
Raitt, a first-time MP who found herself in some controversies over the last year because of the actions of
some aides, moves to take over the job of minister of labour. Raitt fired a communications aide who left a
tape recorder with a reporter and who also left government documents at an Ottawa television studio.
--Moving day for ministers
- Diane Ablonczy (Alta.): minister of state (seniors)
- Rona Ambrose (Alta.): public works
- Keith Ashfield (N.B.): national revenue, minister of state (Atlantic Gateway)
- Jean-Pierre Blackburn (Que.): veterans affairs
- Stockwell Day (B.C.): treasury board
- Marjory LeBreton (Ont.): stays as leader of the government in the Senate, but loses minister of state
(seniors)
- Peter MacKay (N.S.): stays as national defence, but loses minister of state (Atlantic Gateway)
- Rob Moore (N.B.): minister of state (small business and tourism)
- Christian Paradis (Que.): natural resources
- Lisa Raitt (Ont.): labour
- Vic Toews (Man.): public safety
- Peter Van Loan (Ont.): international trade
* Ministers of state do not attend meetings of the full cabinet but participate in meetings of some
committees of cabinet.
Back to Top
Section: Front
Byline: Bruce Cheadle
Outlet: The Chronicle-Herald
Headline: Harper shuffles cabinet; MacKay keeps Defence, but Atlantic portfolios go to N.B.'s Ashfield
Page: A1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper called it "fine-tuning the ministry," perhaps because
"recalibrate" was already taken.
Three weeks after he shut down Parliament to give his minority government an extended winter break to
"recalibrate" its agenda, Harper performed a minor makeover on his cabinet Tuesday that left most major
portfolios untouched.
"This is the cabinet that will lead us through the second and final phase of our economic action plan,"
Harper declared.
The cabinet changes, which touch on 13 portfolios, were headlined by a Conservative government pitch
to wrestle down the staggering deficits that sprang seemingly from nowhere after the October 2008
election and threaten to march indefinitely into the future.
Most notably in this region was the transfer of Defence Minister Peter MacKay's Atlantic Gateway portfolio
to New Brunswick MP Keith Ashfield. MacKay keeps his high-profile Defence post. MacKay, the MP for
Central Nova, has faced relentless opposition attack for his handling of the Afghan detainee file before
Parliament was prorogued in December.
Stockwell Day, the former flamboyant Canadian Alliance leader who has mellowed into a yeoman cabinet
performer for Harper, was moved out of International Trade to the Treasury Board, where he has a
mandate to keep a tight lid on public spending.
"It will be essential for the government to restrain the growth of spending," said Harper. "The president of
the Treasury Board plays a critical role in overseeing government expenditures."
Day, asked about his future cabinet vocabulary, deadpanned: "I think you'll hear two words: No and No."
But government economic retooling was hardly the theme of Tuesday's shuffle.
Senior economic portfolios, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Industry Minister Tony Clement,
Infrastructure and Transport Minister John Baird and Human Resources Minister Diane Finley remained
unchanged.
Also untouched were Defence, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Heritage Indian Affairs and Justice.
It is in essence the same crew that drove program spending up by 17.6 per cent over their first three
years in power, slashed revenues by cutting two points off the GST, and is now projecting a $56-billion
deficit for 2009-10.
"They were in deficit before the recession began," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said in frustration
Tuesday. "I don't know where Stephen Harper got his reputation for good financial management. This has
been a disaster."
NDP Leader Jack Layton used one of the other high-profile moves of the shuffle - the demotion of former
Natural Resources minister Lisa Raitt to Labour - to issue his own condemnation of Harper's economic
priorities.
While the number and plight of Canada's jobless should be the government's main economic focus, said
the New Democrat, instead the labour file is treated by the prime minister as a "penalty box."
"Jobs, job creation and the issue of our labour force should be a top priority, not seen as some kind of
penalty box for a misbehaving minister," Layton said.
Raitt, who rocketed into cabinet within weeks of her first election win in October 2008, ran into trouble last
year when she was caught on tape - obtained by Chronicle Herald Ottawa bureau chief Stephen Maher criticizing fellow ministers and referring to the medical isotope crisis as a "sexy" issue. She was on the hot
seat again, accused of questionable expenses when she was president of the Toronto Port Authority.
"It's a one-man show," groused Ignatieff. "I think there's never been a cabinet so under the domination of
the Prime Minister's Office."
Back to Top
Section: Top Story
Outlet: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Headline: Toews moves to Public Safety - Stockwell Day to take over as; Treasury Board head
Page: A3
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
OTTAWA -- Manitoba senior federal cabinet minister Vic Toews is giving up penny-pinching to battle
terrorism and crime. The Conservative MP from Provencher was sworn in as the minister of public safety
Tuesday, putting him back on familiar ground after spending the last three years in relative cabinet
obscurity as the president of the Treasury Board.
His longtime friend and campaign manager, Don Plett, now a Conservative senator, said he was "thrilled"
for Toews, noting it works well with Toews' interests and skills.
"It's a natural fit for Minister Toews," Plett said. "He's passionate, clearly, about the safety of Canadians,
about border security."
In a written statement, Toews said he was "honoured" to stay in cabinet and move to the new role.
"I look forward to applying my previous experience in this exciting new role," he said.
Toews is a lawyer by education and worked as a Crown attorney and government lawyer before being
elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1995, handling a number of portfolios, including attorney general
when the Filmon Tories were in power. He made the jump to federal politics in 2000 as the MP for
Provencher. He was the justice minister for a year in 2006 and was moved to Treasury Board in 2007.
Toews' new duties run the gamut from national security and anti-terrorism policies to crime prevention,
overseeing the RCMP, federal prisons and emergency management of natural disasters. With the
attempted terrorist bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner fresh on people's minds, and the new rules for
airplane security still in the works, including full-body scanners, Toews' hands will be full just with aviation
security alone.
Toews' move was seen as somewhat of a promotion, at least in profile, particularly as border security and
crime prevention are key elements of the Harper agenda and will not get sidelined, even in tough fiscal
times.
Toews takes on the role just as Harper has handed out orders to conduct a strategic review of the
country's public safety policies with a view of identifying critical gaps in air-travel security, critical
infrastructure protection and foreign intelligence gathering.
Toews replaces Ontario MP Peter Van Loan in Public Safety, as part of a small cabinet shuffle made by
Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The shuffle left most of Harper's front-bench ministers in place, including Finance (Jim Flaherty), Defence
(Peter MacKay), Industry (Tony Clement) and Infrastructure/Transportation (John Baird).
Toews is being replaced by Stockwell Day, who has surprised some by going from a punchline politician
during his days as leader of the Canadian Alliance to one of the most capable and well-regarded
members of Harper's cabinet.
Harper praised Day Tuesday while giving him responsibility for the office that controls the government's
purse strings at a time when slaying the $56-billion deficit is the government's priority.
"I'm assigning this task to one of the most senior members of the cabinet, a former provincial treasurer
who has distinguished himself in every portfolio he has held," Harper said.
Ontario MP Lisa Raitt appeared to be punished for missteps last year that included leaving sensitive
documents at a television studio and being caught bad-mouthing her cabinet colleagues on tape. Raitt
was dumped from Natural Resources into Labour. But Rona Ambrose, the Alberta MP dropped into the
low-profile Labour portfolio in 2007 after a difficult time in Environment, was back into prominence,
promoted to Public Works.
Manitoba junior cabinet minister Steven Fletcher stays put as minister of state for democratic reform.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the moving of ministers from one job to another is inconsequential
because Harper runs the government like a one-man show and his ministers are just his puppets.
NDP public safety critic Don Davies said he is keeping an open mind about Toews, but said he fears
Toews comes into the job with a reputation for being a "my way or the highway" kind of person, which
isn't in keeping with the delicate mix of interests involved in public security.
"Mr. Toews has a reputation for being relatively bull-headed," said Davies. "I'm hoping he won't take that
approach."
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
The tale on Toews
Name: Victor "Vic" Toews
Age: 57
Born: Paraguay (moved to Manitoba when he was three years old)
Education: Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute (1970), University of Winnipeg (B.A. in history, 1973),
University of Manitoba Law School (1976)
Riding: Provencher
MP since: 2000
Previous cabinet posts: Justice ( February 2006-January 2007), Treasury Board (January 2007-January
2010)
Pre-Parliament life: Manitoba MLA for Rossmere, provincial justice minister
Pre-political life: Manitoba Crown attorney, provincial government lawyer
Non-political life: Has three children; says he enjoys rollerblading and jogging.
Skinny on Public Safety
The minister of public safety has five main responsibilities: emergency management, national security
(including border security), crime prevention, law enforcement and corrections.
Five agencies report to the minister: Canada Border Services, RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence
Service, Correctional Service of Canada, National Parole Board.
Cabinet shuffle winners
Stockwell Day: Moves from International Trade to Treasury Board, where he will lead the government's
pivotal effort to limit public spending as part of the effort to slay the deficit.
Keith Ashfield: Enters cabinet as minister of national revenue and minister for the Atlantic Gateway.
Rona Ambrose: Moves from the low-profile Labour portfolio to running the huge Public Works
department.
Rob Moore: Enters cabinet as junior minister for Small Business and Tourism.
Shuffle losers
Lisa Raitt: Moves from Natural Resources to the Labour post. Raitt stirred controversy by referring to the
medical isotope crisis as a "sexy" issue and for past questionable expenses as president of the Toronto
Port Authority.
Peter Van Loan: Moves to International Trade from the high-profile Public Safety portfolio where he was
the government's point man on terrorism threats.
Other chess moves
Jean-Pierre Blackburn (Quebec): From Revenue to Veteran's Affairs
Christian Paradis (Quebec): From Public Works to Natural Resources
Diane Ablonczy (Alberta): From minister of state, small business and tourism to minister of state, seniors
Greg Thompson (New Brunswick): From Veterans' Affairs to resigning cabinet seat, triggering shuffle
{Ottawa ONT}
Back to Top
Section: Canada
Outlet: The Chronicle-Herald
Illustrations:
Opportunities Agency and minister for the Atlantic Gateway at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Tuesday. (Pawel
Dwulit / CP)
Headline: N.B. MP takes over at ACOA; Move will give MacKay more time to focus on defence portfolio
Page: A3
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
A New Brunswick MP will head up the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to allow Defence Minister
Peter MacKay to focus on Afghanistan and allegations of detainee abuse, observers said after a cabinet
shuffle Tuesday.
Keith Ashfield, a Conservative MP for Fredericton, was named minister of national revenue, as well as
minister for ACOA and the Atlantic Gateway. MacKay held the latter two portfolios before the shuffle.
Ashfield, 57, said he planned to spend the next while getting briefed on the portfolios and his role as
regional minister for New Brunswick.
"It's quite an increase in responsibilities I've had over the past," he said from Ottawa. "Atlantic Gateway is
another department that I have to go through the briefing on and get a better understanding of what
direction we're going there."
Ashfield dismissed concerns that ACOA's future might be uncertain, saying the Tories have created,
rather than dismantled, regional development agencies since coming to power.
He has served as minister of state for the regional funding agency since he was elected in 2008.
Premier Darrell Dexter is hoping for a smooth transition.
"Nova Scotia has a good working relationship with Mr. MacKay, and I am confident that we will develop a
good working relationship with Mr. Ashfield, whom I congratulate on his appointment today," Dexter said.
"Mr. MacKay continues as the senior minister from Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia's representative in the
federal cabinet and an important member of government as the minister of national defence. ACOA and
Atlantic Gateway are regional files in which Nova Scotia, and therefore Mr. MacKay, have a major role as
we all work to build a stronger region."
Guysborough County Warden Lloyd Hines is also hoping for continued co-operation on the Atlantic
Gateway transportation strategy.
"We're very familiar and comfortable with him (Mr. MacKay)," Hines said. "We have a great deal of
contact with him and we're confident in him.
"We'll have to get to know the new minister from New Brunswick, but I don't see any problems for the
Atlantic Gateway at all."
Wayne Hunt, a professor of political science at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., said taking
ACOA and the Gateway off MacKay's plate likely indicates Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants his time
spent on the Afghan file.
"MacKay was taking a certain amount of heat over the whole detainee issue, and this is a way of
signalling that you're going to allow some of your ministers to focus more exclusively on certain files," he
said.
MacKay faced relentless opposition attacks for his handling of the Afghan detainee file before Parliament
was prorogued in December.
The shuffle comes at a time when the government needs a distraction from the politically damaging
effects of Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament until March 3.
"This is part of very much an orchestrated Conservative strategy to try to get discussion moving on, away
from the blowback that's happening because of the proroguing of Parliament," Hunt said.
Jeff MacLeod, a political science professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, said the minor
shuffle is likely meant to ease MacKay's workload and signal that there's going to be more power-sharing
in the region.
With Jason Teakle
Back to Top
Section: Business
Headline: Transition won't hinder Gateway funds: minister; Politics: 'I don't see a delay in the flow of
funding,' Keith Ashfield says
Page: B1
Outlet: New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal
Byline: QUENTIN CASEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Fredericton MP Keith Ashfield says his appointment as the new minister for the Atlantic Gateway will not
further delay the roll-out of funds from that department.
Ashfield got a substantial promotion in Tuesday's federal cabinet shuffle and will now control the region's
major federal funding accounts.
He was named the minister of national revenue, minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
(ACOA) and minister for the Atlantic Gateway. Previously, Ashfield was the minister of state for ACOA.
The former New Brunswick MLA took the Atlantic Gateway file from Nova Scotia MP and Defence
Minister Peter MacKay.
In an interview, Ashfield said the transition between ministers will not further delay gateway funding.
"I don't see a delay in the flow of funding," he said. "A lot of the finding has already come through for
highways, bridges and ports. There has been a lot of money flow into gateway projects."
Yet the lion's share of gateway funding has yet to be unlocked.
At issue is a $2.1-billion pot of federal funding that was designated for so- called gateway projects more
than two years ago. On the East Coast, those funds would go toward developing the so-called Atlantic
Gateway.
The idea is to position the region as an entry and exit point for international commerce.
According to Atlantic Gateway proponents, port, rail and highway upgrades will increase the amount of
goods that enter the region and then travel by rail and road to North American markets.
The goal is to make the Atlantic provinces the key eastern entry point for goods coming through the Suez
Canal from emerging economies in Asia, such as India and Vietnam.
In November, MacKay said he still wasn't sure when the federal government will unlock the bulk of the
$2.1-billion fund. At the time, he said he was still waiting for gateway funding requests and
recommendations.
As of November, the federal government had only doled out $200 million of the $2.1 billion.
"We'll assess each project as it comes forward and if it's a good project, we'll push for it," Ashfield said
Tuesday.
Charles Cirtwill, of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, said he doesn't expect the change in ministers
to affect progress on gateway funding.
Cirtwill, president of the Halifax-based think-tank, also said Ashfield's appointment shouldn't be viewed as
a knock on MacKay. Instead, the Harper government had to promote a New Brunswicker after the cabinet
departure of Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson, also a New Brunswick MP.
Ashfield was elected to the House of Commons in 2008. A longtime New Brunswick MLA, he served as
the provincial minister of natural resources from 2003 to 2006 in the Bernard Lord government.
- with files from Chris Morris
Section: Editorial
Outlet: The Chronicle-Herald
Headline: CABINET SHUFFLE; Many moves, little change
Page: A10
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
MOST Canadians would be hard-pressed to name five members of the federal cabinet. As a result of
Tuesday's shuffle, none of the most familiar faces who might spring to mind in a pop quiz - like Finance
Minister Jim Flaherty or Defence Minister Peter MacKay - are going anywhere.
By those standards, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's rearranging of the chess board - even though it
involved 10 pieces - was a minor affair.
On the regional front, Mr. Harper was forced to tweak the lineup after veteran New Brunswick MP Greg
Thompson resigned as veterans affairs minister last week.
That province delivered three new seats to the Tories during the 2008 election and Mr. Harper was not
about to let it go under-represented. So he gave Fundy-Royal MP Rob Moore a junior position and
promoted Fredericton's Keith Ashfield to Revenue, and handed him Mr. MacKay's former responsibility for
the Atlantic Gateway.
Still, there is little doubt that Mr. MacKay will remain the regional kingpin and that the lightening of his load
had more to do with satisfying the needs of New Brunswick than dissatisfaction with the defence
minister's performance.
On the other hand, Mr. Harper was apparently disappointed with two other ministers: Peter Van Loan and
Lisa Raitt.
Perhaps the most significant move he made on Tuesday - apart from Stockwell Day's elevation to the
Treasury Board, from where he will tighten the country's purse strings - was the ejection of Mr. Van Loan
from the Public Safety portfolio.
Mr. Van Loan is one of the Tories' most partisan attack dogs during question period. But Mr. Harper, who
has just ordered a comprehensive review and revamping of Canada's safety priorities, was clearly not
prepared to entrust that task to Mr. Van Loan, tapping Vic Toews for the job instead.
As for Ms. Raitt, once a rising star in the Tories' Ontario firmament, she was transferred from Natural
Resources to the quieter realm of Labour. Her fall from grace began with an inadvertently taped
conversation with an aide which fell into the hands of The Chronicle Herald, in which she described the
medical isotope shortage as "sexy."
Nonetheless, Ms. Raitt is a capable, self-made woman. Chances are she will be back in a front-row post
soon enough, not unlike Rona Ambrose, who did her own tour of duty in Labour after a shaky debut in
Environment and is now back at the controls in Public Works.
Overall, this cabinet shuffle is largely meaningless, except to the careers of those involved.
Viewed from street level, this government neither has a new look, nor a new outlook.
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: Don Martin
Outlet: The Ottawa Citizen
Headline: Harper plays it safe with second-tier tweak
Page: A3
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: Canwest News Service
The only drama behind this week's cabinet shuffle was the call MP Rona Ambrose received on her
satellite phone just hours after cresting the summit of Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro. The Prime Minister's
Office wanted the labour minister back in Ottawa for reassignment. Immediately.
Not that scaling the 5,900-metre glacier-ringed peak rates any Everest-conquering comparison. I did it
three years ago and I'm no poster boy for fitness beyond excellence in beer pong.
But it's a helluva impressive feat for Ambrose to stagger to the summit Sunday and then make the 20hour dash of a descent through snow and Tanzanian jungle to catch the last flight connection to
Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony.
It also represented an ironic reversal of political fortunes for the Alberta MP.
The last time Ambrose was in this corner of Africa, she was the environment minister representing
Canada at a climate change summit in Nairobi where she collected heaps of scorn and daily fossil awards
for acknowledging her government could not meet its
Kyoto Accord greenhouse gas reduction promises.
The backlash to her merely following PMO orders eventually cost her the job and placed her in the labour
ministry doghouse.
Now, three years later, this rookie mountain climber is on the rise again politically as the minister of public
works, a sprawling empire that spends billions building, renovating, renting and stimulating capital works.
But that's it for political intrigue in this shuffle.
OK, seeing bland nice-guy Christian Paradis elevated to the natural resources gig, where he supposedly
presides over the oil producing provinces to the west and east that clash with his Quebec loyalties, was
jarring at first blush. Yet it's widely acknowledged inside government that Environment Minister Jim
Prentice remains political godfather of the oilpatch, so the blue-eyed sheiks need not fret the threat of a
Quebecer stuffing a cork in the smokestacks of Fort McMurray.
As a "recalibration" of the Conservatives' direction, a tangible justification for Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's prorogation of Parliament until March, this is low-calibre material to sell as a government gamechanger.
Not one of the big five ministers -- Jim Flaherty in finance, Rob Nicholson in justice, Peter MacKay in
defence, Lawrence Cannon in foreign affairs and environment's Prentice -- had to order a business card
reprint.
That reflects Harper's belief that the large issues in those ministries are either already in steady hands or
not necessarily vote-changers.
MacKay in particular has tripped over his tongue a number of times on the Afghan detainee issue, yet
seems to have the prime minister's confidence to continue stonewalling that controversy, although he got
a tap on the wrist by having his regional payola duties taken away.
The shift of Stockwell Day from international trade to become the president of the Treasury Board is
viewed as significant by some who believe this puts a fiscal hawk in charge of the purse strings while
government contemplates how it will shake down the deficit without raising taxes or cutting transfers.
Besides, as long as Jim Flaherty is finance minister, he'll be the minister making the call on the spending
surge and will set the course for sucking in the government's supersized spending stomach.
The shift of Lisa Raitt to the aforementioned labour doghouse from natural resources while the ethics
commissioner continues to probe allegations of improper fundraising activity is interesting. By kicking her
down the totem pole a few notches before the verdict is in, Harper is clearly signalling that even the
whisper of impropriety can have serious consequences.
Unless he's carefully hiding a personality, the relocation of Peter Van Loan, the cabinet's least likable
minister, from public safety to international trade is curious because it isn't going to give our foreign
business relations a friendly face.
And it's odd to put Calgary's Diane Ablonczy in charge of seniors issues (she could handle so much
more) when Harper had loyal Senate foot soldier Marjory LeBreton, herself a senior, relishing the job.
But those are quibbles. With his mid-sized second-tier tweak, the prime minister had opted to play it safe.
He has fielded a front bench that can handle any eventuality -- be it an election showdown this spring or
as a slightly improved cabinet governing over a cowering opposition trio for another year.
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: Barbara Yaffe
Outlet: Vancouver Sun
Headline: Daygets the big-money job in Harper's cabinet shuffle
Page: A1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: Vancouver Sun
A federal cabinet shuffle Tuesday puts B.C.'s Stockwell Day in charge of a key economic portfolio as the
Harper government prepares to tackle an onerous budget deficit and bring more discipline to its spending.
The shuffle of the 38-member cabinet -- described as no more than "a fine tuning" by Conservative
insiders -- involved 12 Conservatives and, in some measure, was triggered by the resignation last
weekend of Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson, which left New Brunswick without representation.
The government's most influential ministers -- finance's Jim Flaherty, Jim Baird in transport and Peter
MacKay in defence -- remain in place.
Day now becomes president of the treasury board, a department that oversees the government's own
spending, which in recent years has been growing at an unsustainable pace.
He replaces Manitoba's Vic Toews who moves to public safety as the PM orders a review of increasingly
costly air travel security, critical infrastructure protection and foreign intelligence gathering.
In comments following the shuffle, Harper highlighted his confidence in Day, calling the MP for
Okanagan-Coquihalla, "one of the most senior members of the cabinet, a former [Alberta] treasurer who
has distinguished himself in every portfolio he has held."
Day, formerly minister for international trade, will hang on to responsibility for the Asia-Pacific Gateway.
Former public safety minister Peter Van Loan, in a move interpreted as a demotion, moves to fill the trade
post.
Another western cabinet representative affected is Diane Ablonczy, who was minister of state for small
business and now becomes minister of state for seniors. Her new responsibility appears to reflect a slight
demotion, despite the fact Harper's government faces a challenge in appealing to women.
Also demoted -- Halton MP Lisa Raitt, who takes on the labour portfolio after losing natural resources to
Quebecer Christian Paradis. Raitt was criticized for her performance last year in delivering the
government's message on Atomic Energy of Canada. She was also implicated in a fund-raising
controversy last fall.
Edmonton's Rona Ambrose saw a promotion, going from labour to public works -- a high-profile
department as a result of the government's economic stimulus program.
Ambrose had been demoted several years ago for being unimpressive in the environment portfolio. Her
appointment signals that Harper is sometimes prepared to give second chances to ministers who have
disappointed.
Though that was not the case yesterday for Maxime Bernier, who lost his foreign affairs Portfolio in 2008
after leaving secret papers at a girlfriend's home. Rumours that he might find his way back into the Harper
cabinet turned out to be false.
From N.B., Harper promoted two backbenchers: Fredericton's Keith Ashfield, who takes on revenue, and
will assume responsibility for the Atlantic Gateway -- relieving MacKay of that task, and Rob Moore, MP
for Fundy Royal, who becomes minister of state for tourism and small business.
Quebec's Jean-Pierre Blackburn will move from revenue into Thompson's veterans affairs portfolio.
The shuffle leaves the Harper government in good shape for the return of Parliament March 3, when the
focus is expected to be on the economy. Conservatives, given their minority status, also wanted to reboot
in anticipation of a possible election later in the year.
Polls lately have shown the government's support level dropping, from the 38 per cent range down to
about 30 per cent, so any initiative that helps to put a new face on the old crowd will be considered
potentially helpful.
byaffe@vancouversun.com
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: Canada is pitching in another $80 million to help humanitarian efforts in Haiti, bringing the total
contribution since last week's 7.0 quake to $135 million.
Headline: $80M more for disaster relief
Page: 5
Byline: BY KATHLEEN HARRIS, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU CHIEF
Outlet: The Ottawa Sun
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Canada is pitching in another $80 million to help humanitarian efforts in Haiti, bringing the total
contribution since last week's 7.0 quake to $135 million.
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda announced Tuesday $60 million more will go to the UN
appeal to help deliver essential services to three million Haitians. Of those funds, $39 million will go to
food security and $15 million to UNICEF for health, shelter and water sanitation services.
Another $11.5 million will be shared by six non-governmental organizations and $8.5 million will go
directly to the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The new dollars are on top of Canada's immediate $5-million
pledge after the quake hit and the federal dollars which will match individual donations from Canadians.
Updating the military mission on the ground, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Canadian Forces
personnel will be focused on the hard-hit area of Leogane and Jacmel, where Canada's DART team was
the first international assistance to arrive.
© 2010 Sun Media Corporation
Back to Top
Section: Canada
Byline: Stephen Thorne
Outlet: The Chronicle-Herald
Headline: Ottawa boosts aid to Haiti; More cash, more police to be made available
Page: B1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The federal government is boosting its monetary and manpower contributions to Haitian
earthquake relief as donations by ordinary Canadians top $40 million.
Canada has committed up to $135 million to the relief efforts and is ready to deploy more police to help
stabilize the increasingly volatile situation if needed, government ministers said Tuesday.
Some 2,000 Canadian soldiers, sailors and air crew, including two warships, have arrived in or are en
route to the towns of Jacmel and Leogane, about 40 kilometres southwest of Port-au-Prince. It could take
two weeks to get the full contingent on the ground.
Leogane was at the epicentre of the Jan. 12 quake and 90 per cent of the town is flattened. Gov. Gen.
Michaelle Jean has childhood ties to Jacmel, a seaside town right along the fault line.
"The road to Jacmel is severely damaged and the port rendered inoperable, isolating it from the world,"
Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the daily briefing on Canadian efforts in Haiti.
"A journey that would normally take four hours by road now takes at least eight. When the DART
reconnaissance team first entered the area several days ago, they were in fact the first people from Portau-Prince to visit Jacmel since the earthquake struck.
"The situation is dire. . . . Many people are injured, deprived of food and water, and unable to access
essential services."
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Canada is constantly re-evaluating its role and stands
ready to commit more police and security forces to Haiti as soon as UN authorities "signal that conditions
allow this." There were more than 80 Canadian police officers working in Haiti before the quake hit.
"We need to move beyond reconstruction to build a new Haiti," Cannon said. "We are loyal neighbours
and partners of the Haitian people, and this is what we're focused on."
Officials said 13 Canadians had been confirmed dead by Tuesday; another 655 were missing as the
estimate of the total number of people killed by the magnitude-7.3 quake topped 200,000.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said four of the Canadian dead were government employees who "paid
the ultimate price of service to their country."
"Canadians are united in sorrow at the untimely passing of their countrymen," Harper said.
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said Canadians have contributed more than $40 million to
earthquake assistance and Ottawa will match those donations.
The federal government is also contributing $60 million to UN efforts in Haiti, $39 million of it to food
security through the World Food Program. The WFP expects to provide more than 100 million meals to
quake victims over the next 30 days.
Oda said $15 million of the UN-designated money will go to UNICEF for health, nutrition, protection and
water-and-sanitation services. The Canadian funds will also go to various other UN groups in Haiti,
including the International Organization for Migration, the UN Population Fund and the World Health
Organization.
Additional contributions, on top of the $5 million initially distributed for critical relief supplies such as food,
tents and blankets, as well as water, sanitation and protection include:- $11.5 million to six Canadian nongovernmental organizations: CARE Canada, Medecins du Monde Canada; Save the Children, Oxfam
Quebec, World Vision and the Canadian Red Cross Society.- $8.5 million to the emergency appeal of the
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for water, sanitation and health
services to about 300,000 quake victims.- About $1 million for an emergency field hospital, along with 10
Canadian medical and technical professionals, operated by the Norwegian Red Cross and the Canadian
Red Cross.
The field hospital can provide surgical and medical care to as many as 300 quake victims a day.
Numerous hospitals in the Haitian capital have collapsed, and those that are open are full. The field
hospital includes modules for surgery, first aid and triage, a ward of 70 beds, a community health unit and
a psychosocial support unit.
MacKay said Canada has airlifted 293 tonnes of relief goods into Haiti so far, including three water
purification systems, each of which can produce more than 136,000 litres of clean water daily.
"As the Canadian Forces mount this extraordinary effort to assist Haitians on the ground, Canadians
continue to pledge their support both monetarily and spiritually to the people of Haiti," MacKay said.
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: Richard J. Brennan
Outlet: The Toronto Star
Illustrations:
-au-Prince. Officials say a repaired airport in the town of Jacmel
would hasten the flow of humanitarian items. Alexandra Duguay, 31, a Canadian UN worker, was killed in
the quake. Alexandra Duguay, 31, a Canadian UN worker, was killed in the quake.
Headline: Rescue teamshustle to get aid to survivors; Canadian, U.S. militaries repairing Jacmel airport
to allow supplies to fly into devastated area
Page: A17
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: Toronto Star; With files from Associated Press
Round-the-clock efforts are being made to repair an airport in Jacmel - at the heart of the Canadian
rescue effort in Haiti - to allow heavy-lift military aircraft to land with tonnes of humanitarian items.
"We are looking at opening a C-130 airstrip in the vicinity of Jacmel within the next 24 to 48 hours to
begin to both distribute supplies into the southern area more quickly and to relieve some of the immediate
pressure on Port-au- Prince airfield," U.S. Maj.-Gen. Dan Allyn, deputy director of the joint task force in
Haiti, said Tuesday.
Canadian and American military personnel are targeting the coastal town of Jacmel, where there is a
desperate need for food, water and shelter. The area is about 40 kilometres south of the capital, Port-auPrince.
Ottawa announced Tuesday it will contribute another $80 million toward humanitarian relief for Haiti,
bringing the total federal government commitment since last week's earthquake to $135 million.
As part of that $135 million commitment, Ottawa has promised to match individual charitable donations up
to a maximum of $50 million. So far, Canadian donors have committed more than $40 million.
"We are committed to doing everything possible to ease the suffering of the Haitian people. As we have
done in the past, we will continue to support the Haitian government and its people as they recover and
rebuild following this terrible tragedy," International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda said Tuesday.
The announcement comes on the heels of estimates it will cost at least $10 billion and take several years
to rebuild Haiti.
As looters rampaged through parts of Port-au-Prince, the UN Security Council on Tuesday approved
3,500 extra troops and police officers to beef up security in Haiti to ensure that desperately needed aid
gets to victims. The world body is facing criticism that millions of people still don't have food or water.
The UN resolution will add 2,000 troops to the 7,000 military peacekeepers already in the country and
1,500 police to the 2,100-strong international police force.
As for aid, Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said the goal is to rapidly get in
4.2 million rations of high-nutrition children's food, and 10 million total rations.
The confirmed Canadian death toll rose to 13 Tuesday with news that United Nations worker Alexandra
Duguay, 31, was killed in the earthquake.
In a posting on a Facebook support group, Marie-Dominique Bedard said the body of Duguay, her
daughter, was found. "It appears she died in the first minutes of the quake," Bedard wrote.
Duguay was a communications officer working with the UN in Port-au-Prince. A spokeswoman for the
United Nations did not confirm or deny the death.
News reports said one of Duguay's co-workers, Renee Carrier of Saint-Paul-de- Montminy, Que., a
special assistant to the head of the UN mission, Hedi Annabi, also died in the collapse of their building.
Carrier was a 30-year veteran administrator who had also worked in Western Sahara and Eritrea. Her
death was announced Monday night to UN staff, in an internal email, but there had not been any official
confirmation.
Another 655 Canadians remain unaccounted for, down from 1,433 on Friday.
Hundreds of Canadian forces personnel began arriving earlier Tuesday in Jacmel, Governor General
Michaelle Jean's hometown.
"The situation there has been described as dire," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said. "Many people in
the region were injured, deprived of food and water and unable to access essential services."
Canada has two naval ships moored off Haiti and several helicopters. It will eventually have 2,000 troops
and personnel in the country.
"HMCS Halifax will be stationed offshore from Jacmel while HMCS Athabaskan will drop anchor just
around the corner from Port-au-Prince at the town of Leogane near the epicentre of the earthquake,"
MacKay said. Ninety per cent of Leogane's infrastructure has been destroyed.
The estimated death toll in Haiti has risen to as many as 200,000.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the government of Haiti and the United Nations were
evaluating priorities on the ground "and we must stand ready to further contribute police and security
forces as soon as the (United Nations mission) signals that conditions allow this."
Tim Callaghan of the U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team said search and rescue teams from 43
different countries have rescued a total of 72 people from the rubble since the earthquake struck.
Back to Top
Section: International News
Outlet: The Globe And Mail
Byline: GLORIA GALLOWAY
Headline: Canada's big task starts on a small strip
Page: A14
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
The runway is short and there is no control tower. But the tiny landing strip at Jacmel on Haiti's south
coast has become a lifeline to a region that was all but levelled by last week's earthquake.
A Canadian C-130 Hercules set down at Jacmel's airport yesterday, the first plane from any country to
reach people cut off from the aid that is arriving, albeit slowly, in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
At about the same time, the frigate HMCS Halifax pulled near to Jacmel's shallow port and began sending
troops to the garbage-strewn shores on inflatable boats.
``We have now roughly 250 or 300 folk who are down in Jacmel,'' Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, the
chief of land staff for the Canadian military, said in an interview yesterday morning.
By last night, 1,000 of Canada's troops, sailors and air personnel had arrived in the tiny, devastated
nation. Hundreds more will join them in the next 36 hours.
A transport ship is due to dock in Quebec City tomorrow to load vehicles. It will be several more days
before it arrives in Haitian waters. Even when the vehicles arrive, the army has to get them ashore, a
process that could take much longer.
Many soldiers will end up in the heavily damaged and isolated region of Jacmel and nearby Léogâne, at
the epicentre of the earthquake, where Canada will focus its relief effort.
Logistics have been a problem, Gen. Leslie conceded. The airport at Port-au-Prince had become ``a
choke point'' for the international response.
So the Jacmel runway, despite the challenge it presents even to experienced pilots, is a critical portal for
getting supplies and people in and out. ``We have actually managed to open an airport and we have
proved it with the very brave flight crew that took this big monstrous machine and put it on the runway,''
Gen. Leslie said.
But the Hercules crew were not the first members of Canada's air force to make the risky landing in
Jacmel. That job went to the Griffon helicopter pilots who began flying reconnaissance missions to
southern Haiti five days ago.
Captain Mitchell Nurse said his first thought upon seeing the airport from the cockpit of his Griffon was
how desolate it is.
``The ramp is pretty small. It gets pretty full with about four or five small aircraft. There is no air-traffic
control. It's quite the wild one,'' Capt. Nurse said by telephone from Port-au-Prince.
The 27-year-old pilot has made more than a dozen trips between Jacmel and the Haitian capital, flying in
with supplies for Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team, and out with survivors.
His passengers yesterday included two babies and three adults who needed medical attention. Earlier in
the week, he airlifted two Canadian missionaries to safety. ``When we landed at our camp back here they
started to cry,'' Capt. Nurse said.
It is his first overseas deployment. But many of the Canadian military personnel who are in Haiti have only
recently returned from Afghanistan. And many have done tours in Haiti. Some speak Creole.
The duration of the mission, which will soon be two-thirds the size of the mission in Afghanistan, is
unknown. Defence Minister Peter MacKay said he expects it will last a maximum of two to three months.
The primary job will be security as well as delivering medical aid and emergency supplies of food and
water. For now, it also includes rescuing Canadians. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, 1,641 Canadians had been
located but 665 Canadians were still missing. More than 1,200 people had been evacuated on 13 military
flights.
The federal government, meanwhile, continues to make plans for a meeting next week in Montreal of the
Friends of Haiti, an informal group of countries that have expressed strong interest in Haitian
development.
Details are still being decided but non-governmental aid groups operating in Haiti say they want to take
part.
``We are not organizations that have just come to Haiti in the moment of the crisis,'' Robert Fox, the
executive director of Oxfam Canada, said during a teleconference yesterday. ``We are organizations that
have years of engagement with Haiti and with Haitian civil society ... and we will be there in the long term
as Haiti reconstructs and rebuilds.''
Back to Top
Section: Canada & World
Byline: Mark Iype and Juliet O'Neill
Outlet: Vancouver Sun
Illustrations:
in line for several hours at a Haitian-run water distribution centre in Port-au-Prince Tuesday.
Headline: Soldiers flood in to help Haitians; Relief is starting to reach survivors in theface of looting and a
'tense' security situation
Page: B1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: Canwest News Service
International relief efforts to help the hundreds of thousands of people injured, hungry and left homeless
after last week's devastating Haitian earthquake got a big lift on Tuesday with the arrival of added troops,
the promise of thousands more, and a pledge to provide millions of dollars in additional aid.
In an effort to support earthquake relief and maintain security, the United Nations Security Council
unanimously agreed to boost the number of UN troops and police in the country by 3,500. There are
9,000 members of the UN stabilization force in Haiti. The additional troops and police will be deployed
with a six-month mandate.
All 15 members of the Security Council voted in favour of the resolution, which said the increase was a
recognition of "the dire circumstances and urgent need for a response," reported Reuters.
"I am . . . grateful to the Security Council for their swift action," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said
after the announcement, adding it was "a clear signal that the world is with Haiti."
The security situation in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has been deteriorating since the Jan. 12 7.0magnitude earthquake struck -- possibly killing as many as 200,000 people.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it would attempt to resume distribution of aid in the
city on Tuesday. The international aid organization suspended its efforts on Monday when looters
threatened the safety of its personnel.
Despite reports of looters swarming over destroyed stores and trying to collect as many supplies as they
can, United Nations relief agency officials said the security situation was under control and had not
hampered distribution of food rations to 270,000 Haitians so far.
"The situation is tense but calm. Of course there are lootings because the population is on edge,"
Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in
Geneva.
She added that hope still remains that survivors might be discovered amid the rubble of flattened
buildings.
Some 52 rescue teams from around the world, including Canada, continued the search for survivors
under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Around 90 people have been saved, including two on Monday.
"There is hope, because of the conditions, a mild climate and air pockets in the debris due to the way
houses are constructed," Byrs said.
The Canadian effort also ramped up Tuesday, with the arrival of Canadian ships and equipment and an
announcement of millions of dollars in additional funding for emergency food, water, sanitation, medical
treatment, shelter and protection of vulnerable people.
Minister Peter MacKay said Canadian troops had begun flying into the southern coastal town of Jacmel -bypassing the clogged airport in the country's Port-au-Prince.
"The first soldiers from Quebec, part of the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, are already on the
ground and hundreds more are en route as we speak," army chief Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said in an
interview.
By midnight Tuesday, he said, 1,000 Canadian Forces personnel and other Canadian officials will be in
Haiti to help those without homes or basic necessities.
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: Upward of five flights are leaving 8 Wing at CFB Trenton daily, carrying relief supplies, equipment
and troops bound to Haiti.
Headline: Flights leaving Trenton daily
Page: 6
Byline: ERNST KUGLIN, QMI AGENCY
Outlet: The Kingston Whig-Standard
Illustrations:
and medicalequipment aboard a C-17 Globemaster. The aircraft was bound for earthquake-stricken Haiti.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: TRENTON
Upward of five flights are leaving 8 Wing at CFB Trenton daily, carrying relief supplies, equipment and
troops bound to Haiti.
The massive deployment, dubbed by the military as Operation Hestia, involves the around-the-clock
efforts of between 500 and 800 base personnel.
Wing Operations Officer Lt.-Col. Dave Murphy said yesterday 8 Wing has not undertaken such a large
operation since the massive airlift to East Timor in 2005.
"Morale is exceedingly good. Everyone is energized and moving forward with the mission at a rapid
pace," said Murphy. "This is, without a doubt, a very big operation."
Five flights left CFB Trenton Monday, carrying personnel, elements of the Disaster Assistance Response
Team (DART), medical and relief supplies and a Griffon search and rescue helicopter.
As Murphy was speaking with reporters on the tarmac, a CC-177 Globemaster and CC-130 Hercules
were being prepped for loading. Dozens of troops gathered in the air terminal building for departure.
Murphy said the military was now employing its Airbus fleet.
"We have the personnel and the equipment to get the job done," said Murphy. "We do whatever we have
to (do) to adopt to the flight schedule."
Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced Sunday a light infantry battalion from the Royal 22nd
Regiment, based in Valcartier, Que., will be deployed to Haiti.
The 1,000-troop unit will include enough supplies to set up a complete hospital. It also includes a full
squadron of engineers in order to begin repairing some of the infrastructure destroyed in the earthquake.
Murphy couldn't say if aircraft from CFB Trenton will be used to airlift the battalion to Haiti plus meet its
current operational requirements. National Defence, he said, will make a decision on whether to hire
private aircraft to complete the airlift.
Once the airlift is completed, about 2,000 Canadians troops will be in Haiti.
A naval task force made up of a destroyer and frigate carrying 500 personnel and supplies arrived off the
Haitian coast Monday afternoon.
As of Monday, well over 100 tonnes of medical supplies and rations have been airlifted to Haiti. The
tonnage doesn't include equipment such as helicopters and armoured G-Wagons and other logistical
supplies needed to support troops on the ground.
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: David Pugliese
Outlet: The Ottawa Citizen
Headline: Canadian military tightens its belt further; DND scrambles to find another $233M in savings
Page: A1 / FRONT
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Canwest News Service
The Defence Department will have to find another $233 million in savings by the end of March but it can't
say where the money is going to come from.
The army, navy and air force are already finding $190 million in savings that will be shifted to priority
projects.
The latest news of what the department is calling "adjustments" rather than cuts brings the total savings
to $423 million. It is unclear at this point how various organizations inside the department will be affected.
The news is also emerging as the Canadian Forces take on a large mission in Haiti.
"As these figures are subject to change over the coming months, a complete picture of the final outcome
will only be available after the end of the current fiscal year," stated Defence Department spokeswoman
Kathleen Guillot.
She said the adjustments are a normal part of federal fiscal management. "It's very routine," Guillot said.
"Budget adjustments are not budget cuts," she added.
But soldiers who contacted the Citizen say the moves are budget cuts and are not normal. Soldiers in
reserve units, including those in the Ottawa area, say they have had their budgets trimmed and training
abruptly shut down.
Liberal Senator Colin Kenny said the Harper government is doing what previous Liberal and Conservative
regimes have done: saving money by chopping defence budgets. "They're a bunch of hypocrites,
pretending that these are not cuts," said Kenny, chairman of the Senate's defence committee.
He pointed out that training courses are being chopped or cancelled and that aircraft are not flying as
often as the Defence Department tries to find savings.
The navy has cut training for its reserves in January and will reduce infrastructure maintenance and
repairs, while the air force will scale back on non-operational training, cut some of its flying time, and
scale back non-essential repairs.
The army is also reducing planned activities and training for soldiers not currently preparing for
operations, including non-essential exercises and adventure training. It is also delaying some nonessential maintenance and repair of infrastructure and equipment as well as purchases of items such as
commercial pattern vehicles used on bases. The reductions that hit the army reserves have angered
some of the part-time soldiers who say they left their civilian jobs for temporary full-time work with the
regular forces, only to be told they are no longer needed.
The army, navy and air force are also reducing travel and attendance at conferences.
Guillot pointed out the Defence Department has seen overall budget growth of about 50 per cent in the
last seven years. The 2009-2010 budget is about $21 billion.
Those figures were noted in a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, done in conjunction
with the Rideau Institute, which determined defence accounted for nearly 10 per cent of all federal
spending. After adjusting for inflation, Canadian military spending this year was up 9.6 per cent compared
to last year and is 15-per-cent higher than Canada's defence spending at the peak of the Cold War in
1952-1953, the report said.
"DND is right to say this isn't a cutback as their budget grew this year by almost a billion dollars," said Bill
Robinson, the report's author.
"I'd be surprised to see this government making sharp cuts to the military."
The Defence Department has not indicated exactly where all the money saved is being shifted to,
although it has indicated it will support the government's Canada First Defence Strategy.
Dan Dugas, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, played down the adjustments.
"They're doing what they need to do to stay in their budget," he said of the Department's measures. "They
have more money than they had last year and they'll have more money next year."
Army spokesman Lt.-Col. Jay Janzen said the money saved by that service will be used to support other
higher priority programs such as training soldiers for international and domestic operations and
purchasing new equipment. The army has a $5-billion plan to purchase several types of new armoured
vehicles as well as refurbish light-armoured vehicles damaged or heavily used during the war in
Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Section: News
Outlet: Calgary Herald
Illustrations:
Photo: Fred Thornhill, Reuters / Family members weep beside the hearse carrying Sgt. John Faught at
CFB Trenton on Tuesday.
Headline: Tearful return for 'father figure' trooper; Ontario soldier killed by mine while on patrol
Page: A2
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: CFB TRENTON
Source: Canwest News Service
T he body of Sgt. John Wayne Faught, a Canadian soldier who died Saturday in Afghanistan, returned to
Canadian soil Tuesday afternoon.
Faught, 44, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was killed by a landmine while leading his unit on foot
patrol near Nakhoney, about 15 kilometres south of Kandahar, in the troubled Panjwaii region.
Faught's flag-draped coffin returned to Canadian Forces Base Trenton at 2 p.m. Tuesday local time while
his family members and dignitaries -- including Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and Chief of Defence Staff
Gen. Walt Natynczyk -- looked on.
From there, Faught's remains were transported along the stretch of Highway 401 known as the Highway
of Heroes toward Toronto.
He is survived by his mother, Donna Marie, in Sault Ste. Marie, a sister in Toronto and a girlfriend in
Thunder Bay, Ont.
Faught, who joined the army 23 years ago, was a section commander of Delta Company, 1 Princess
Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry of Edmonton. He was on his sixth foreign tour of duty, three of which
were in Afghanistan.
Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard described Faught as a "career soldier" who was "very much a father figure" to
the younger troops under his command.
He was the 139th Canadian killed in the conflict.
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: Close to 140 students lined up along Hamilton Road Tuesday afternoon to watch as another fallen
soldier made their way down Repatriation Row.
Headline: Hundreds show up for fallen soldier's repatriation
Page: 29
Byline: BY EMILY MOUNTNEY, QMI AGENCY
Outlet: The Edmonton Sun
Illustrations:
Tuesday repatriation ceremony for Sgt. John Faught in CFB Trenton, Ont. Faught was killed by an IED in
Afghanistan on Saturday.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: TRENTON, Ont.
Close to 140 students lined up along Hamilton Road Tuesday afternoon to watch as another fallen soldier
made their way down Repatriation Row.
The students stood and watched as the motorcade carrying the body of Sgt. John Faught made its way
down Hamilton Road after his repatriation ceremony held earlier at CFB Trenton.
"This is the second time that we've brought the children down to watch this," said teacher Margaret
Cooper. "We have a lot of military families at the school and some of the staff have family in the military
as well, so we think it's really important."
The death of John Faught brings the total number of fallen soldiers to 139 during Canada's eight-year
mission in Afghanistan.
The 44-year-old Sault Ste. Marie native was killed Saturday after stepping on an improvised explosive
device during a patrol in southern Afghanistan.
Faught was a sergeant with the 1st Batallion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and was a
dedicated member of the Canadian Forces who had spent 23 years serving his country.
He served three tours in Afghanistan and three in Bosnia, and took pride in never losing any of his troops.
Faught's repatriation is the third ceremony in as many weeks, following the repatriation of three Canadian
soldiers and one journalist less than two weeks ago.
He was on routine patrol near the town of Nakhoney in the volatile Panjwai district, about 15 km
southwest of Kandahar city.
Nakhoney, in one corner of the so-called Panjwaii triangle and a longtime troublespot for Canadians, has
been a hub of insurgent activity.
© 2010 Sun Media Corporation
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: The flag-draped casket of the latest Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan arrived at CFB Trenton
Tuesday to his bereaved family and an emotional display from the governor general.
Headline: Emotional return for fallen soldier
Page: 14
Byline: BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
Outlet: The Toronto Sun
Illustrations:
casket at CFB Trenton Tuesday.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: CFB TRENTON
The flag-draped casket of the latest Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan arrived at CFB Trenton
Tuesday to his bereaved family and an emotional display from the governor general.
Sgt. John Faught was killed by a roadside bomb Saturday in Kandahar province. The 44-year-old from
Sault Ste. Marie was a member of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in
Edmonton.
Faught's casket was carried from a military transport to a waiting hearse by a guard of honour as
dignitaries and family members looked on.
Among the dignitaries was Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, who offered a hug to Sgt. Kevin Lincez, the escort
officer accompanying Faught's casket for the journey home. Jean reached up and stood on her toes as
she offered Lincez a warm embrace.
Faught was the 139th Canadian soldier to die during the Afghan mission. His troops affectionately called
him "Toast" because of his crusty character.
Friends described him as someone who "lived, slept, ate and breathed" with his fellow soldiers and would
be sorely missed. Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard said the soldier could always be counted on to speak his
mind.
© 2010 Sun Media Corporation
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: Close to 140 students lined up along Tuesday afternoon to watch as another fallen solider made
their way down Repatriation Row.
Headline: Students pay respects to soldier
Page: 9
Byline: EMILY MOUNTNEY, QMI AGENCY
Outlet: The Kingston Whig-Standard
Illustrations:
-CFB Trenton looks on as pallbearers carry the
casket offallen Sgt. John Faught during a repatriation ceremony held Tuesday. Close to 140 students
showed up to pay their respects.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: TRENTON
Close to 140 students lined up along Tuesday afternoon to watch as another fallen solider made their way
down Repatriation Row.
The students of V.P. Carswell Public School stood and watched as the motorcade carrying the body of
Sgt. John Faught, 44, made its way down Hamilton Rd. after his repatriation ceremony held earlier at
CFB Trenton.
"This is the second time that we've brought the children down to watch this," said teacher Margaret
Cooper. "We have a lot of military families at the school and some of the staff have family in the military
as well, so we think it's really important."
Faught's death brings the number of fallen soldiers to 139 during Canada's eight-year mission in
Afghanistan.
The Sault Ste. Marie native was killed Saturday by an improvised explosive device while on a patrol near
the town of Nakhoney in the volatile Panjwaii district, about 15 kms southwest of Kandahar City.
Faught, of the 1st Batallion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was a dedicated member of the
Canadian Forces who had spent 23 years serving his country. He served three tours in Afghanistan and
three in Bosnia.
The combined patrol on which Faught was killed was part of Canada's effort "to protect Afghans from
insurgents and to learn more about the people of the village and their needs," Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard
said.
© 2010 Sun Media Corporation
Back to Top
Section: Haiti Disaster
Byline: JULIET O'NEILL
Outlet: Montreal Gazette
Headline: Relief routed through D.R.; Canadian groups avoid 'choke point'
Page: A4
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: OTTAWA
Source: Canwest News Service
Leaders of four Canadian relief organizations said they are managing to help thousands of people in Haiti
despite an aid supply bottleneck at the Port-au-Prince airport and delays in coordinating international
efforts.
They are getting around the "choke point" by using supplies purchased in Haiti, brought in overland from
Dominican Republic or shipped from Miami. They also spoke in a conference call with reporters yesterday
about how their aid workers are finding the vast majority of Haitians organized and calm.
David Morley, president of Save the Children Canada, said Haitians "have shown remarkable restraint
and orderliness in the face of this horrific destruction." CARE Canada president Kevin McCort told of
buying 5,000 mattresses and supplies for 5,000 hygiene kits in Haiti, so it was not necessary to rely on
supplies being flown to the overwhelmed Port-au-Prince airport.
"It's not all about getting material (outside). There are supplies within the country as well," McCort said.
Oxfam Canada's executive director Robert Fox told of how 20,000 tonnes of Oxfam Canada supplies, on
a plane that circled Port-au-Prince's airport, were diverted to neighbouring Dominican Republic and
trucked in to the earthquake zone.
Those supplies included sanitation equipment, chlorine for treating drinking water, buckets, plastic
sheeting and body bags. Oxfam is distributing water at soccer fields and golf courses in the capital, where
tens of thousands of homeless people are camped.
"Yesterday, our capacity to deliver water in some places was hampered by the fact that we didn't have the
fuel for our trucks, but today the fuel has arrived so we're back to full delivery and ramping up," Fox said.
"So there are certainly barriers, but we are overcoming some of those barriers."
CARE, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec and Save the Children Canada have pooled their 600 personnel
in Haiti, resources and fundraising efforts into a charity for Haiti relief called the Humanitarian Coalition.
So far, they have raised $3.5 million of their $5-million goal.
One of the group's priorities is to help pregnant women and new mothers. An estimated 10,000 women in
the earthquake zone are due to have babies within a month and breastfeeding will be jeopardized if the
mothers don't have enough food and water.
McCort said it takes time to coordinate international emergency assistance, but "we've learned in disaster
after disaster that coordination is the only way to get aid to the right people as fast as possible.
"We cannot simply throw food and water out of the windows of a truck and hope for the best," he added.
"We know that those kinds of distributions, in fact, spark riots and spark violence."
Morley said the group is getting medical supplies to hospitals in Port-au-Prince and was starting mobile
clinics yesterday in Léogane, the city that was in the epicentre of the earthquake and is a focal point for
Canadian Forces personnel.
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: Sheldon Alberts, Jorge Barrera And Juliet O'Neil
Outlet: Calgary Herald
Illustrations:
f food and water
by U.S. soldiers on Tuesday in the town of Terra Noire just outside Port-au-Prince. Colour Photo: Tatyana
Makeyeva, Reuters / Rescuers tend to Pierre Louis Ronny who was discovered in the rubble of abuilding
Tuesday.
Headline: Relief outlook slowly improving; Security concerns remain, but people remain calm
Page: A7
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: PORT-AU-PRINCE
Source: Canwest News Service
T hey line the fence by the hundreds at the airport -- men, women and children peeking balefully over the
security fence as giant U.S. military cargo planes reach the runway with life-saving medicine and food.
But a week after Haiti's capital was flattened by a 7.0 earthquake, fears that sporadic violence might
engulf Port-au-Prince escalated Tuesday as victims grew increasingly desperate for food and water.
U.S. army Maj. Daniel Allyn reported "emerging incidents of instability" throughout the city, where U.S.
Marines made a dramatic onshore arrival to mark the increased American security presence. "Our
commanders on the ground are adjusting their force posture to move them where they are needed most
to ensure that we don't get an unsuitable environment," Allyn told reporters.
About 800 of 2,200 marines aboard the USS Bataan began deploying onshore to begin supporting aid
efforts in areas west of Port-au-Prince. Separately, members of the 82nd Airborne landed near Haiti's
destroyed presidential palace to take control of the city's overburdened General Hospital -- amid cheers
from Haitians watching the spectacle.
It was the most visible sign yet that U.S. forces were seeking to relieve -- or at least supplement -- the
9,000 UN peacekeepers who risk being overwhelmed by security challenges created in the quake's
aftermath.
In Ottawa Tuesday, leaders of four relief organizations said they are managing to help thousands despite
an aid supply bottleneck at the Port-au-Prince airport and delays in coordinating international efforts.
They are getting around the "choke point" by using supplies purchased in Haiti, brought in overland from
Dominican Republic or shipped from Miami. They also spoke in a conference call with reporters Tuesday
about how their aid workers are finding the vast majority of Haitians organized and calm.
David Morley, president of Save the Children Canada, said Haitians "have shown remarkable restraint
and orderliness."
CARE Canada president Kevin Mc-Cort told of buying 5,000 mattresses and supplies for 5,000 hygiene
kits in Haiti, so it was not necessary to rely on supplies being flown to the overwhelmed Port-au-Prince
airport.
"It's not all about getting material (outside) there are supplies within the country as well," McCort said.
Oxfam Canada's executive director Robert Fox told of how 20,000 tonnes of Oxfam Canada supplies on a
plane that circled round Port-au-Prince's overwhelmed airport was diverted to neighbouring Dominican
Republic and trucked.
The Pentagon says Port-au-Prince's damaged seaport will open by the end of the week, opening another
vital route for relief. The USNS Comfort hospital ship dropped anchor off Port-au-Prince Tuesday and was
to begin accepting patients for trauma care and surgery immediately.
Also two airports -- one in the southern Haitian city of Jacmel and the other in San Isidro in the Dominican
Republic -- will begin accepting aid flights within the next 48 hours, the U.S. military said.
Canadian Forces personnel set to work in Jacmel, delivering food, water and medical assistance from
HMCS Halifax off shore and through the DART -- Disaster Assistance Response Team -- which travelled
from Port-au-Prince.
"The first soldiers from Quebec, part of the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, are already on the
ground and hundreds more are en route as we speak," army chief Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said Tuesday.
Even as the U.S. and UN trumpeted the arrival of more aid and transportation, the situation for ordinary
Haitians remained precarious. Despite the continued steady arrival of civilian and military aid flights, food
trucks were a scarce sight in the worst-hit areas of Port-au-Prince.
Back to Top
Section: International News
Outlet: The Globe And Mail
Byline: PAUL KORING
Headline: From a few arrivals daily to hundreds: a once sleepy airport transformed into a crucial hub
Page: A8
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
A scant 28 minutes after landing, the special emergency airport operations teams of the U.S. Air Force
had taken control of Haitian airspace.
They were sorting out the dangerous jumble of television news helicopters, aging propeller planes full of
aid, but short of fuel, and military transports from as far away as China - all jockeying to be ``first in.''
That was barely 24 hours after the massive earthquake levelled much of Port-au-Prince but miraculously
left the country's longest runway unscathed. That ribbon of concrete is now Haiti's overstretched lifeline.
Since then, nearly 1,000 large aircraft have landed, unloaded and taken off again in seven days, on a
single runway at an airport normally so sleepy that it usually handles three passenger jets a day.
Today, more than 180 flights - included several dozen hulking C-17s capable of carrying 100 tonnes of
aid - are expected to arrive in an intricate aerial and constantly re-choreographed dance.
Despite transforming the airport into a round-the-clock base coping with tens of thousands of tonnes of
food, fuel, medicines while evacuating several thousand foreign nationals and hundreds of seriously
injured, howls of complaints have threatened to drown the roar of jet engines.
``This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,'' said Alain Joyandet, France's Minister of Foreign
Aid, when a French air-force plane was temporarily diverted because the airport tarmac was choc-a-bloc
with transports being unloaded.
Some aid groups have accused U.S. Air Force controllers of giving priority to military flights. ``We clearly
had two planes diverted,'' said Benoît Leduc, logistics manager for Médecins sans Frontières, adding that
means doctors are lacking `` the proper drugs or the equipment to perform the operations they need; it's a
fact.''
There's no question that the airport is the chokepoint.
The tight space and the need to unload some planes by hand means that Port-au-Prince - where only half
a dozen aircraft can be squeezed onto the apron at a time - still lags far behind Kandahar air base in
number of flights landing. After years of upgrades, the big NATO base in southern Afghanistan handled
5,500 flights a week last summer, making it the busiest single-runway airport in the world.
Still, for Port-au-Prince's single runway to cope with nearly 1,000 flights in the first week after a major
catastrophe underscores the huge effort.
``When we arrived there was no electricity, no communication and no support,'' said Colonel Buck Elton,
commander of the U.S. Air Force unit running the airport. ``The tower and the terminal has been
condemned due to damage, so all of our operations are done in the grass between the runway and the
ramp.''
The U.S. Air Force units brought in air-traffic controllers, radios, lights, generators, forklifts and drivers
and tugs to haul aircraft around. ``When we arrived there were two tow bars at the airport,'' Col. Elton
said.
Other extraordinary measures are in place to try and smooth the flow.
Unseen, high above Haiti's denuded mountains, U.S. Air Force fuel tankers circle. U.S. military cargo
planes circle too, taking on fuel from the tankers if necessary, so they can be slotted in to the steady
stream of landing aircraft if another flight is late of if the ground crews managed to unload an aircraft
faster than expected.
``What we've set up here would be similar to running a major airport, ... except doing it without any
communication, electricity, or computers,'' Col. Elton said.
A second, far shorter, runway was opened yesterday at Jacmel on Haiti's south coast.
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: Allan Woods
Outlet: The Toronto Star
Illustrations:
greatest need. Adrian Wyld the canadian press Canadian sailors from HMCS Athabaskan make their way
through Leogane, Haiti, on Tuesday. A rescue and relief team also arrived in Jacmel.
Headline: Team Canada digs right in;Soldiers, sailors launch massive relief effort in Michaelle Jean's
battered hometown
Page: A01
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: Toronto Star
Saws and shovels replaced guns as Canadian soldiers and sailors launched a major rescue and relief
mission in the streets of this southern Haitian city Tuesday.
The last week has been one long and agonizing wait for the 40,000 residents of Jacmel, who had to battle
for the world's attention with Haiti's hard-hit capital, Port-au-Prince.
But a boat arrived just off the coast in the morning and off came teams of blue-shirted Canadian sailors
with shovels, gloves and an urgency after setting sail from Halifax last Wednesday.
They were welcomed by dozens of men who pointed them to the areas of greatest need.
Though much smaller than Port-au-Prince, and much less crowded, Jacmel in still suffering. Men hold up
downed power lines to let cars pass by a collapsed gas station, rubble the size of beach balls block main
roads and a school collapsed with an estimated 300 students and teachers inside. Half of all houses have
suffered serious damage, forcing people to sleep in the streets.
Meanwhile in Leogane, about 30 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince, around 50 troops from HMCS
Athabaskan arrived in inflatable Zodiac boats Tuesday before touring the tent city outside the college.
As they walked through the camp, most of the soldiers were armed with clipboards and phones rather
than guns.
From dawn to noon the Canadians heaved boulders that had tumbled into the road between Jacmel's
food distribution centre and the city centre after the earthquake. Backlogs of food, medicine, tents,
blankets and other supplies that have come into the port on ships were set to start rolling into the streets.
"We just needed some sailors to start moving some rocks," coxswain Robert Brown told the Toronto Star.
In a country where so much has gone wrong since the quake struck, particularly the international aid
effort in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel is one small example of where things are going right.
Here, the death toll is thought to be in the hundreds, not thousands. Refugee camps have sprung up,
although only at dusk. Military cargo planes can land on the tiny airport runway just outside of town, and
with that comes the help that is essential to this city's survival.
There is still chaos in Jacmel. Local men rushed up to members of an army search and rescue team
moments after they left the gated United Nations compound and led them to the collapsed houses where
their skills could be put to use.
But they were helpless when a crowd begged for help for a woman going into labour next to a flattened
three-storey cybercafe.
Still, the very arrival of Canadian soldiers is cause for celebration in this country. Locals crowded the
Jacmel shore with a mix of curiosity and relief as HMCS Halifax unloaded its sailors and aid.
"Up until now there's been no distribution (of aid)," said Domlun Lindor, a student who watched boxes of
food, medicine and other urgent supplies being sorted at Jacmel's port.
"With the arrival of the soldiers, it's getting better."
The fact there are Canadian flags on those soldiers' shoulders is not lost on anyone here. Locals beam,
nod and point to the outskirts of town when someone mentions Governor General Michaelle Jean, whose
family hails from Jacmel. The thought of her people suffering brought her to tears last week, and has
helped fuel Canadian support for the earthquake victims.
But it is a group of film students that deserves the credit for ensuring Jacmel was not overlooked in the
global rescue and relief effort.
The Cine Institute, a school run by a former U.S. documentary filmmaker, was hard at work when the 7.0magnitude quake struck. The students went to work instantly with their hand-held cameras and boom
microphones to capture the devastation.
Some lost family in the disaster, others lost their homes, but few have stopped working out of a small
compound near the Jacmel airport.
They beamed their videos to CNN, which broadcast them to the world. When the Star and a television
crew from Radio-Canada visited Tuesday, they filmed the journalists at work.
"We're constantly working, day and night," said Jocelyn Fyrmin, 24, a school employee.
"We want these images to be seen by as many people as possible. We want to get attention and help."
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: Canadian sailors landed on the shores of the tiny agricultural town of Leogane Tuesday -- an area
nearly completely wiped out by Haiti's recent earthquake.
Headline: 'So happy to see' Canucks Sailors assist 90%-destroyed farming town
Page: 5
Byline: BY ALTHIA RAJ, QMI AGENCY
Outlet: The Ottawa Sun
Illustrations:
rcessailors with the HMCS Athabaskan patrol the
beach in Leogane, Haiti, Tuesday after arriving ashore via Zodiac.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: LEOGANE, Haiti
Canadian sailors landed on the shores of the tiny agricultural town of Leogane Tuesday -- an area nearly
completely wiped out by Haiti's recent earthquake.
As large crowds of Haitians looked on from the beach, two dozen sailors from the HMCS Athabaskan
arrived by inflatable motorboat. Locals said this was the first assistance they had seen, as most of the
international effort focuses on Port-au-Prince.
"I am so happy to see the Canadians here," said Saintulia Metelus. "Without your help, we won't get out
of this mess."
A little boy followed the sailors as they walked from the beach to the neighbourhood of Ca-Ira -- French
for "things will be OK."
He is hungry, he said.
As the sailors stood together facing another crowd of Haitians, leading seaman Andrew MacPhee said
he's a "little taken aback" by the disaster zone and his first time in a third-world country.
Waiting for the sailors is a population living entirely in the streets. Tents made of driftwood, sheets and
tarps populate the downtown area.
People whose homes are still intact are afraid to sleep in the structures, worried they'll crumble during
ongoing aftershocks.
One man shows the cracks in his home, on the walls, the stairs and the base of the structure. He is living
with his wife, his niece and her three-month-old daughter in a shack outside.
"We are going to do what we can for you," MacPhee said to another man. Local reporter Sergino Rogene
wants to know exactly what the Canadians will do.
"Leogane was 90% affected by the earthquake, which means that in terms of destruction she is the town
most affected," he said. "Today, we saw the Canadians come and that warmed our hearts, but ... what is
their objective? Are they here to provide humanitarian assistance? To provide medical attention? To
provide food? Security? We need it all."
On their first day ashore, the navy helped 16 medics from the Canadian Medical Assistance Teams set
up a 50-bed field hospital in the city's core.
Another 12-person team assisted a first aid centre run by Argentineans on a UN base staffed by the Sri
Lankan army. Three members from the Van Doos were also there to lend a hand. More are expected to
come.
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: Canadian Navy sailors from the HMCS Halifax arrived in Jacmel, south of the Haitian capital of
Port-au-Prince, Tuesday morning, armed with shovels, picks, crowbars, hammers, saws, generators and
hydraulic tools to clear blocked roads.
Headline: Navy lands in Jacmel - and starts clearing roads
Page: 25
Byline: BY JEAN-LUC LAVALLEE, QMI AGENCY
Outlet: The Toronto Sun
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: JACMEL
Canadian Navy sailors from the HMCS Halifax arrived in Jacmel, south of the Haitian capital of Port-auPrince, Tuesday morning, armed with shovels, picks, crowbars, hammers, saws, generators and hydraulic
tools to clear blocked roads.
Jacmel is located 30 km from the capital of Port-au-Prince, where all of the supplies and medical material
sent by Canada are arriving. Making the trek has been doable but it still is difficult using the road through
the mountains. It takes two hours to travel the short distance due to fallen rocks that damaged the vehicle
lane.
"Our goal here is to clear the roads so that provisions can arrive easily from the city," said Chief Petty
Officer Second Class Fred McCrea during a walk through the Haitian streets to take stock of the mess.
Jacmel, a tourist town known for its architecture and colonial charm, was less affected than the capital by
the quake, though many large buildings collapsed.
The Canadian sailors wasted no time getting to work, clearing a main road that leads to the Jacmel port.
But they will need to use plenty of elbow grease and will have to work in teams because they don't have
any heavy machinery.
"Obviously they were happy to see us ... some were saying: it's about time! We're here, at least, and we
were excited to arrive," said Master Seaman Charles Jutras. "The people are very calm, very positive and
it's (nice) to see people that are able to smile at us. People are pleasant despite the devastation."
Amazingly, we don't sense that the quake had an impact on the morale of the locals, especially
considering that dozens of people died in this small town.
There isn't the same chaos as in downtown Port-au-Prince. There's no looting, no violence. The Jacmel
people are picking themselves up and getting organized, all the while waiting for food and water.
"We're happy to contribute and to help the Haitian people, there is an attachment for sure, and plus our
Governor General is from here -- it's an honour," said Jutras.
The Canadian war ship wasn't able to dock at the Jacmel port because the water was too shallow.
Instead, they stopped about 1 km from the shore and unloaded troops using small boats.
© 2010 Sun Media Corporation
Back to Top
Section: Business & Technology
Byline: Vito Pilieci
Outlet: The Ottawa Citizen
Headline: Ottawa firm's gear purifies water for Haitians
Page: D1 / FRONT
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Hundreds of thousands of people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti will soon be receiving clean drinking water
thanks to the Canadian military and some Ottawa-born technology.
Water-filtration equipment produced by Seprotech Systems Inc. is en route to Haiti, travelling with
Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
The team is also bringing food and medical supplies and is outfitted with three of the company's
emergency Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units. The machines, which are about the size of an
industrial garbage container, are each capable of producing as much as 5,000 litres of potable water
daily.
According to the company, the units can provide between two and five litres of drinking water a day for up
to 150,000 people.
The machines take less than 20 minutes to set up and can draw water straight from the ocean and
convert it.
The machines use several levels of filtration to scrub water clean for drinking purposes, including reverse
osmosis and chlorination.
Dirty water is pumped into the machine, where several filters pull out floating debris.
It then passes through a reverse osmosis membrane that pulls out any other particles or bacteria that
may be left in the water.
As a final safeguard, chlorine is added to kill any viruses or bacteria that may have made it through the
filtration process.
Martin Hauschild, president and chief executive officer of Seprotech, said each of the units cost the
Canadian military between $600,000 and $700,000.
He said that in recent years, the units have been deployed in Kashechewan First Nation in Northern
Ontario, Afghanistan, the Philippines and other disaster-stricken areas.
Seprotech, founded in 1985, is headquartered in Ottawa and makes equipment to filter municipal water
supplies and help municipalities deal with waste-water filtration.
Back to Top
Section: Editorial
Outlet: The Globe And Mail
Headline: Aid needs security
Page: A16
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
They were a dull green, but the helicopters hovering over the Haitian presidential palace bore an
unmistakable red, white and blue. For some, a large foreign military presence in Haiti raises fears of an
imperial occupation. But in any disaster that cripples the institutions that provide order and government,
there's a simple formula: Without security, there can be no aid.
Haiti's own security personnel have, quite understandably, been overwhelmed by the tragedy. Only 40
per cent of the police forces (Port-au-Prince ordinarily counts 4,000; another 9,000 are members of the
Haitian National Police) are said to be working; many are dead, or trying to help their own families.
Meanwhile, new groups of foreign soldiers are streaming in, joining the 9,000 peacekeepers and
international police already in the country. Among them are 10,000 American troops and support staff and
2,000 Canadians Forces personnel. A UN mission of 8,940 soldiers and up to 3,711 police has been
approved for a six-month deployment.
Given the yawning gap between the aid delivered and the great need, sporadic street fighting is
inevitable. And the real impact of the lawlessness may be more severe than it appears. Behind each
image of young men muscling each other aside for water, food and gasoline are a thousand women and
children absent from the picture, also waiting for relief.
Militaries can help with the immediate, and more equitable, delivery of aid. Indeed, as of yesterday, the
World Food Program reported that the U.S. military had delivered more food rations (130,000 packets)
than were distributed by the WFP itself (120,000 packets).
Effective militaries can break aid logjams in ways few other institutions are capable of. U.S. forces are
opening a runway at Jacmel airport. Canadians with the HMCS Athabaskan have arrived to co-ordinate
relief in the village of Leogane.
A strong security presence is essential for the longer-term protection of Haitians. Newly orphaned
children could be drawn into the sex trade or human trafficking schemes. The drug trade - Haiti is a transit
point for North America-bound cocaine - may thrive in the instability. The mere presence of other soldiers
will reduce these criminal threats, even if actual policing is left to the UN and Haitian personnel, as U.S.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates promises.
Before the earthquake, Haiti was already in effect a protectorate, with no standing military, guarded by a
UN stabilization force. The new foreign military presence, focusing on human security, should be
welcomed as an integral part of the relief effort.
Back to Top
Section: Editorial
Outlet: National Post
Headline: Haitian turf wars
Page: A12
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: National Post
It's understandable that Alain Joyandet, France's International Co-operation Minister, would have been
frustrated at having a French aid flight carrying a field hospital turned back from Port-au-Prince's severely
overtaxed airport. Nor is there anything unforgivable about his apparently physical confrontation with a
U.S. official in charge of air traffic control. People are trying to help Haiti under enormously trying
circumstances; tempers are bound to flare. And according to Britain's Daily Telegraph, there does seem
to have been a prioritization issue that needed ironing out -- U.S. officials have now promised to give aid
flights first priority.
But no matter how angry he was, it was beyond the pale for Mr. Joyandet to go to the press and suggest
American forces were "occupying" Haiti -- and for Medecins Sans Frontieres to back him up. These
actions risk undermining the whole aid mission, messy though it is, with the sort of Freedom Lover vs.
Surrender Monkey rhetoric we saw in the lead-up to the Iraq War. (To his credit, French President Nicolas
Sarkozy moved quickly to resolve any tension, extensively praising Washington's response.) And while
Haitians have far bigger things to worry about right now than biting any hand that feeds them, to risk
inflaming colonial or anti-American tensions in a post-colonial wreck is just a bad idea.
When it comes to helping foreigners, the Americans really can't win for trying. For all Washington's illconceived actions in Haiti in the past -- and elsewhere in Latin America, and in Iraq, and Southeast Asia,
and wherever else you care to focus your attention -- there's no indication that anything underlies its rapid
response in Haiti other than heartfelt concern for a close neighbour. (Nor is there any even remotely
plausible reason for any nation to want to annex Haiti.) Indeed, the United States' reaction to the crisis
differs from Canada's only in terms of scale; and if our situations were reversed, it's safe to say Mr.
Joyandet wouldn't have accused Ottawa of indulging its vile colonialist instincts.
Back to Top
Section: Opinion
Headline: DART is on duty to help Haitians
Page: C7
Outlet: The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)
Byline: Michael Staples
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
The next few weeks are vital to the safety and well-being of millions of Haitians.
A devastating earthquake pummelled the poor nation into near submission on Jan. 12, killing thousands
of people in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The magnitude 7.0 quake devastated basic services such as water and electricity, impacting as many as
three million inhabitants.
It also crumbled existing infrastructure, knocking it to the ground as easy as particles of sand blow in the
wind.
It destroyed the presidential palace, the main prison and the national assembly, along with countless
homes, hospitals, schools and orphanages.
Part of this country's response is a concerted military effort known as Operation HESTIA.
It's the military component of a government-wide initiative that includes the Department of Foreign Affairs,
International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and the Canadian International Development Agency.
The Humanitarian Operations Task Force (HOTF), which has been deployed to Haiti under Operation
HESTIA, includes the HMCS Athabaskan (with a CH-124 Sea King helicopter detachment) along with the
HMCS Halifax, and two CH-146 Griffon helicopters. Those ships are carrying much needed relief
supplies.
They will be joined by an additional 1,000 Canadian soldiers from The Third Battalion, Royal 22nd
Regiment (Vandoos) based at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier in Quebec. Their duties will be
peacekeeping and reconstruction, something Canada does very well, but has drifted away from since
Afghanistan became part of the equation.
Also on the ground in Haiti is the Disaster Assistance Response Team, known as DART.
It's what the military describes as "a multidisciplinary, military organization designed to deploy on short
notice anywhere in the world in response to situations ranging from natural disasters to complex
humanitarian emergencies."
Consisting of about 200 Canadian Forces members, the team is "equipped to conduct humanitarian and
disaster relief operations for up to 40 days."
DART's mission is to bridge the gap until national and international aid agencies arrive to provide longterm help.
During the 1995 natural disasters in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, members of the team saved countless lives
by converting undrinkable water into life-sustaining liquid, while offering medical care.
"With its Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit (ROWPU), water supply section can produce up to
50,000 litres per day of safe drinking water, provided in bulk to the medical aid station and in bags for
distribution to local residents," notes the military. "Once the DART camp is established, the other sections
of Engineer Troop undertake other basic construction and engineer tasks required to support
humanitarian aid operations."
Aside from Sri Lanka and Pakistan, DART also deployed to Turkey in 1999 and Honduras in 1988.
As the acronym suggests, DART has the ability to move quickly and get its live-saving operations
functional in the blink of an eye.
The effort now underway in Haiti has seen more than 40 soldiers, mostly engineers, from CFB Gagetown
deployed. Their expertise will be vital in ensuring the smooth operation of the disaster response effort.
According to the military, the primary responsibilities of the DART are:
* To stabilize the primary effects of the disaster in co-operation with national and regional governments
and non-governmental agencies;
* To prevent rapid onset of the secondary effects of the disaster; and
* To gain time for national and international humanitarian aid organizations to deploy to the affected area
and prepare to deliver long-term recovery programs.
If past performances are used as a measuring stick for success, there can be no doubt that DART will
make an enormous and swift difference in Haiti.
Canadian troops are already widely respected in Haiti for their past work in the region.
That, coupled with our quick response in getting to the country and setting up, will not only be
remembered for years to come by residents, it will result in countless lives being saved.
Michael Staples covers the military for The Daily Gleaner. He can be reached at
staples.michael@dailygleaner.com.
Back to Top
Section: News
Lead: Two U.S. service members were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a
day after a brazen Taliban attack on the capital showed militants are stepping up their fight against the
U.S. and its allies.
Headline: Two Americans killed Roadside blast in southern Afghanistan
Page: 33
Byline: BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Outlet: The Edmonton Sun
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: KABUL, Afghanistan
Two U.S. service members were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a day
after a brazen Taliban attack on the capital showed militants are stepping up their fight against the U.S.
and its allies.
The southern Taliban heartland has seen intense fighting and is expected to be the destination for most
of the 30,000 U.S. reinforcements being sent by President Barack Obama. A NATO statement gave no
other details about the latest U.S. deaths.
Also Tuesday, Afghan forces increased the number of checkpoints and patrols in the capital amid public
anger over security lapses that enabled a small group of militants mount a series of suicide explosions
and gunbattles the day before.
President Hamid Karzai ordered a review of security measures in the capital but said Afghan troops
should be praised for their performance in preventing an even bigger disaster as the non-militant death
toll stood at five -- three security forces and two civilians, including a child.
Troops searched vehicles entering the capital as well as on the main streets in the city centre, verifying
documents and pulling suspicious cars aside with an increased number of checkpoints, foot patrols and
vehicle patrols.
Analysts said the attack didn't reflect a stronger Taliban but did expose deficiencies in the security
apparatus.
'ONE POSSIBILITY'
"The Taliban have only one possibility and that is to blow themselves up. But unfortunately the Taliban
can infiltrate Kabul or other major cities for terrorist attacks because of the weak state of the police," said
Taj Mohammad Wardak, a former interior minister.
He said police need more training and higher salaries, adding that Monday's casualty toll could have been
worse if the Afghan army hadn't stepped in to help.
Many Afghans expressed frustration that a handful of gunmen and suicide bombers were able to paralyze
the city of four million for hours.
Mohammad Nasir, a taxi driver, said the government needs to do more to stop foreign attackers from
crossing the border.
"They always say that these attackers are coming from outside, but they don't have wings to fly from the
sky and come here, so they come from the ground," he said. "If we had professional Afghan forces, they
could stop them ... but we see we don't have professional forces to keep them from coming."
Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh also said the militants were increasing the number of suicide
attacks in populated areas to cover up their weaknesses and to undermine the leadership of national
institutions.
SUCCESS RATE
He claimed the success rate of security forces against suicide bombings has increased to 60% over the
past year, meaning they foil six of every 10 attempts.
On Monday, seven attackers either blew themselves up with suicide vests or died in fierce gunbattles.
The civilian casualty toll was relatively low. Most of the 71 people hurt suffered light injuries.
The owner of a store in a shopping centre that was the site of one of the fiercest standoffs on Monday
said the militants told the manager to evacuate the building before the fighting started.
© 2010 Sun Media Corporation
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: JONATHON BURCH
Outlet: Montreal Gazette
Headline: Afghanistan to review security plan for Kabul after attacks
Page: A17
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: KABUL
Source: Reuters
The Afghan government is to review its plan for securing Kabul a day after militants launched a series of
commando-style attacks in the heart of the capital, the president's palace said yesterday.
Taliban gunmen launched a brazen assault on Monday in the centre of the capital, with suicide bombers
blowing themselves up at several locations and militants battling security forces from inside a shopping
centre engulfed in flames.
It was the most high-profile attack inside the capital for almost a year and came as President Hamid
Karzai was swearing in cabinet members at his palace only a few hundred metres away. Karzai met the
ministers of interior, defence and national security yesterday to discuss the raids.
"In this meeting ... all parts of yesterday's events were studied and it was agreed that the plan for Kabul's
security should be reviewed and submitted to the president for approval," Karzai's palace said in a
statement. The palace did not provide any more details.
While the raids were dramatic and well coordinated, casualty figures were relatively low.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said it had troops on the ground during the raids, but that the Afghan
army and police had been leading the operation against the insurgents.
Back to Top
Section: News
Byline: Larry Pynn
Outlet: Vancouver Sun
Illustrations:
Olympics airspace security measures.
Headline: Military says it would shoot down planes; If pilots don't obey airspacerules during
Olympics,Norad warnsit will use 'lethal force'
Page: A1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: Vancouver Sun
The Canadian Forces are ready to exercise "lethal force" in a worst-case scenario to defend new air
space security restrictions being imposed during the 2010 Olympic Games.
Lieut. David Lavallee, spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command, told The
Vancouver Sun on Tuesday that the response to a violation of flight restrictions could range from simple
radio contact with the pilot to the use of Canadian military CF-18 fighter jets and Griffon helicopters.
"There are many facets to a situation like that," he said. "Suffice to say we will have aircraft and people
ready to respond to violations of the restricted air space. Norad has a graduated response that can, if
necessary, culminate in the use of lethal force."
Transport Canada, in concert with federal security agencies, has approved a comprehensive net of new
transportation restrictions governing the movement of aircraft, marine vessels, and dangerous goods
during the Olympics.
Dangerous goods transport will be restricted -- generally between midnight and 6 a.m. on roadways -- on
the Sea to Sky Highway, downtown Vancouver, and within 500 metres of Olympic venues in Vancouver,
West Vancouver, and Richmond to minimize the chance of incidents that could threaten people and the
flow of traffic.
Marine traffic will be subject to no-go "exclusion zones" around Canada Harbour Place and the media
centre in Coal Harbour, the athletes' village in False Creek, the Richmond oval by the Fraser River, and
the Sea to Sky corridor. These areas will be surrounded by "controlled access zones" which may be
entered with approval of 2010s Integrated Security Unit led by the RCMP.
The security rules on transportation bring to mind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the twin towers of
New York City's World Trade Center along with the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bombing of the USS Cole
destroyer in Yemen.
"Anything that is possible or plausible, we try to plan for," said ISU spokeswoman, RCMP Const. Mandy
Edwards.
"We try to take everything into consideration and make the most comprehensive security plan."
Edwards said that before implementing the security rules there have been long-standing talks with
numerous partners, including Port Metro Vancouver, to minimize disruption and allow waterfront
companies such as Harbour Air to continue operations.
The 500-member ISU is charged with overall security planning for the Olympics, including for a security
force of 15,500 RCMP, municipal police, Canadian Forces and other security personnel.
The new air space designations are effective Jan. 29 to March 24.
They begin with two conjoined "Olympic rings" established within a 30-nautical mile radius around
Vancouver International Airport and the Whistler athletes' village and extending from surface to an altitude
of 18,000 feet.
The ring around YVR extends into Washington state almost to Bellingham and has the approval of the
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Student solo flights, aerobatics and model aircraft are prohibited within these two rings of air space. Flight
plans must specify point-to-point operations, aircraft must have a functioning transponder (allowing for
their detection and monitoring), and must maintain two-way radio communications with air-traffic control.
Within these two Olympic over-arching rings are three smaller "Olympic control areas" that include the
Sea to Sky corridor to an altitude of 12,500 feet, and a 13-mile radius around YVR and Whistler to 18,000
feet.
Prohibited in these three areas are parachuting and paragliding, hot air ballooning, sightseeing, aerial
advertising, agricultural operations, and general aviation except for arrivals and departures at Boundary
Bay Airport as authorized by ISU.
The third and final air space designation is "Olympic restricted zones" and applies to Olympic villages,
competition and training venues. The radius generally ranges between one-half and one mile, and
altitudes from 4,000 to 8,000 feet, except for 1,000 feet over the ISU headquarters in Richmond.
Aircrew flying into the restricted zones must be registered with ISU and all flights authorized on an
individual basis, all persons and goods must be screened, and access will be limited to military, police,
emergency life-saving, search and rescue, essential services, official state business, and approved
media.
Transport Canada estimates that non-scheduled aircraft movements could peak at 500 to 600 per day
during the Olympics, with the "potential to exceed airport capacities."
An airport reservation system has been established to manage traffic on a first-come first-served basis at
www.2010airportreservations.ca.
lpynn@vancouversun.com
Back to Top
Section: Provincial
Byline: Steve Bartlett
Outlet: The Telegram (St. John's)
Illustrations:
-cutting ceremony for a new support
facility for ill and injured soldiers Tuesday morning. The unit aims to improve care and recovery for
soldiers who are injured or seeking mental health help. - Photo by Keith Gosse/The Telegram
Headline: Soldier support centre opens at CFS St. John's
Page: A5
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Source: The Telegram
A new support facility for ill and injured soldiers opened at Canadian Forces Station St. John's Tuesday
morning.
The Joint Personnel Support Unit aims to improve care and recovery and prevent soldiers from being
overlooked.
Col. Gerry Blais, the Canadian Forces director of casualty support management, called the centre a
"magnificent achievement."
He said the facility is an improvement over the past when various support services operated on their own.
With the unit, he said things will be better co-ordinated.
"It's truly going to be one-stop shopping," he said.
The St. John's location is the 19th such unit opened across the country. The first nine started offering
services last March.
So far, Blais said, the centres have had over 2,000 users.
"The stories to date have been extremely positive," he told reporters. "We've found there's been much
more of a comfort zone, even for our individuals with mental health difficulties. They come in and this is
much more of a home for them. I really think we've found a much better methodology and we are taking
better care of our ill and injured with this system."
Blais noted there is a large reserve population in Newfoundland and Labrador, and looking after that
segment of the Forces is an area where the Forces used to struggle.
"He said soldiers stationed on large bases get services daily, while reservists don't.
'He goes back home and doesn't necessarily see his military chain. Now we've got that outreach to that
client and, if he has more intense problems, we can have him physically posted to the unit so we can look
after him on a daily basis."
Blais said each centre has an outreach co-ordinator who will inform reserve units what services are
available.
He added reservists who are deployed will be contacted regularly to make sure "all is well until such time
as we're convinced the person is good to go."
The need for such a facility in St. John's was highlighted by a recent Telegram story about a former
reservist suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who was before the courts facing numerous
charges.
Break and enter and causing a disturbance were among them.
Judge Robert Hyslop was torn on how to sentence Marshall Raymond Glover because of his condition
and past service to his country.
The judge didn't want to send the 29-year-old to Her Majesty's Penitentiary, where there are no programs
to help with his healing, and in the end, gave him nine months' house arrest, three years' probation and a
list of conditions to follow.
One was to get counselling as recommended.
Blais was familiar with the story, and said the new centre is already dealing with Glover. He expected that
through earlier invention, the unit will reduce the chances of reservists and soldiers finding themselves in
such trouble.
sbartlett@thetelegram.com
Back to Top
Section: Actualités
Headline: Des milliers de soldats supplémentaires
Page: A5
Source: AFP; La Presse Canadienne
Outlet: La Presse
Byline: Côté, Émilie; Beauchemin, Malorie
Illustrations:
 Une centaine de militaires américains sont arrivés à Port-au-Prince hier. Des milliers d'autres arriveront
sous peu pour sécuriser le pays. Au total, l'ONU aura 8940 militaires et 3711 policiers surle terrain.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Tôt hier matin, les sinistrés qui s'entassent sur la place du Champ-de-Mars ont vu des hélicoptères se
poser à côté des ruines du Palais national, à Port-au-Prince. Une centaine de militaires américains armés
de mitrailleuses ont alors surgi de toutes parts pour sécuriser ce qui reste du symbole de l'État haïtien.
Un groupe de soldats est parti à pied en direction de l'Hôpital général, qui déborde de blessés.
Rapidement, ils se sont postés devant la porte d'entrée et ont fait sortir les gens qui n'avaient pas de
raison d'être là. "Nous sommes là pour assurer la sécurité de l'hôpital. Nous travaillons avec le
gouvernement d'Haïti. Nous sommes ici en mission humanitaire", a dit à l'Agence France-Presse le
sergent Bill Smith.
Une semaine jour pour jour après le puissant séisme qui a ravagé Haïti, l'hôpital a enfin obtenu du
renfort. "Il y a eu pas mal de vols, des malades se sont fait dérober leur téléphone portable, leur sac à
main. On n'arrive pas à contrôler tout le monde. C'est pourquoi on a fait appel à eux", a expliqué le chef
de la sécurité de l'établissement, Limar Angrand.
Le secrétaire américain à la Défense, Robert Gates, a tenu à préciser que les forces américaines ne sont
pas là pour remplacer la police haïtienne, décimée depuis le séisme. Il a toutefois affirmé que les soldats
ont "le droit de défendre les Haïtiens innocents et les membres de la communauté internationale" au
besoin.
Des milliers d'autres militaires arriveront sous peu en Haïti pour sécuriser le pays. Hier matin, le Conseil
de sécurité des Nations unies a approuvé la demande de renfort faite par le secrétaire général de l'ONU,
Ban Ki-moon. Près de 2000 soldats et 1500 policiers s'ajouteront donc sous peu aux forces de la Mission
des Nations unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti, la MINUSTAH. Au total, l'ONU aura 8940 militaires et
3711 policiers sur le terrain.
Des soldats canadiens sont également arrivés à Haïti par la voie maritime, hier matin. Le NCSM
Athabaskan a pris la direction de Léogâne, à l'est de Port-au-Prince, alors que le NCSM Halifax a accosté
à Jacmel, au sud-est de la capitale.
"La région Jacmel-Léogâne a été désignée par le gouvernement d'Haïti comme une priorité pour l'aide
internationale, a indiqué en conférence de presse le ministre de la Défense, Peter MacKay. Léogâne se
trouve à proximité de l'épicentre du séisme et 90% de ses infrastructures ont été démolies. Jacmel a tout
simplement été coupé du monde (ce dont La Presse a fait état hier matin)."
En plus de porter assistance aux survivants du séisme, les soldats tenteront de réparer la route - pour
l'instant impraticable - qui relie Jacmel à Port-au-Prince.
Un contingent de militaires a aussi quitté la base de Valcartier et un autre départ est prévu aujourd'hui.
Au total, près de 2000 soldats canadiens seront déployés en Haïti.
Une semaine de chaos
Une semaine après le puissant séisme qui a dévasté Haïti, les chances de retrouver des survivants
s'amenuisent, mais l'ONU croit qu'il en reste, a souligné hier la porte-parole du Bureau de coordination
des affaires humanitaires, Elizabeth Byrs.
Les promesses de dons pour aider Haïti totalisent plus de 1,2 milliard de dollars, selon l'ONU. Le peuple
américain a donné à lui seul 189,9 millions, une somme équivalente à celles récoltées après le tsunami
en 2004.
Sur le terrain, la distribution de vivres se poursuit avec d'importantes contraintes logistiques. Beaucoup
d'Haïtiens n'ont rien à manger ou à boire. Ils se jettent sur les camions qui leur distribuent des vivres.
Avant-hier, le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) a dû interrompre la distribution d'aide non
alimentaire dans le quartier de Delmas parce que les tensions étaient trop vives.
Les survivants du séisme sont à bout et désespérés. "Ces tensions sont compréhensibles étant donné la
situation extrêmement difficile dans laquelle se retrouvent les gens qui ont tout perdu", a rapporté le chef
des opérations Riccardo Conti, qui est à Port-au-Prince.
"Nous sommes impressionnés de voir comment les Haïtiens, en l'absence du gouvernement, sont calmes
et pacifiques", a toutefois indiqué hier en conférence de presse téléphonique David Morley, le PDG de
Save the Children Canada.
Les soldats appelés en renfort pourront assister les ONG, qui travaillent dans des conditions difficiles. "La
coordination est cruciale. Nous ne pouvons pas juste jeter de la nourriture et de l'eau des camions. Il faut
que la distribution soit organisée pour que l'aide se rende aux plus vulnérables", explique Kevin McCort,
le PDG de CARE Canada.
Back to Top
Section: Actualités
Headline: Les militaires canadiens seront déployés d'ici deux semaines
Page: 16
Source: La Presse Canadienne
Outlet: L'Acadie Nouvelle
Byline: Lina Dib
Illustrations:
 Les soldats canadiens ont pris le départ vers Haïti, hier, à l'aéroport de Québec.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: OTTAWA
Les deux navires canadiens sont bel et bien arrivés au large de Jacmel et de Léogâne, mais les Haïtiens
qui attendent là depuis une semaine l'aide internationale devront encore patienter.
A peine une cinquantaine de militaires à la fois peuvent quitter chaque navire pour aller à terre livrer de
l'aide, a appris La Presse Canadienne. On calcule donc qu'au mieux 120 militaires de ces navires sont
présentement sur le terrain à Jacmel et à Léogâne.
Il faut ajouter à ce nombre une partie de l'équipe de secours DART déjà à Port-au-Prince et qui est en
route vers cette région. On parle, dans ce cas, de quelques dizaines de militaires.
Quant aux 800 soldats de Valcartier, ils mettront jusqu'à deux semaines pour se déployer dans cette
région durement touchée par le séisme de mardi.
Depuis le début de la semaine, le ministre de la Défense, Peter MacKay, cite le chiffre de 2000 militaires
envoyés dans la région de Jacmel où le gouvernement canadien veut concentrer ses efforts. On est
encore loin du compte.
En point de presse à Ottawa, hier matin, le ministre MacKay vantait les efforts de son gouvernement pour
l'envoi rapide des militaires canadiens, affirmant que le tout s'est fait "de manière efficace" et "aussi vite
que possible".
Il faut dire que ce genre de déploiement n'est pas simple. Par exemple, les véhicules qu'utiliseront
éventuellement les militaires de Valcartier quittent le Canada seulement jeudi, à bord de navires. Comme
le port de Jacmel est endommagé, on ignore pour l'instant comment ces véhicules arriveront à terre.
Par ailleurs, le gouvernement canadien annonce de nouvelles aides financières: 60 millions $ seront
versés à l'ONU, dont la majeure partie servira au Programme alimentaire mondial, 11,5 millions $ iront à
des ONG canadiennes, dont le CECI et OXFAM-Québec, et 8,5 millions $ sont offerts à la Croix-Rouge
internationale.
Ottawa calcule que cela portera l'aide canadienne annoncée à 135 millions $.
Le ministre des Affaires étrangères, Lawrence Cannon, veut déjà planifier le long terme. Au même point
de presse que son collègue MacKay, il a soutenu que la réunion des ministres des Affaires étrangères
qu'il présidera lundi, à Montréal, est cruciale. "Le rôle des ministres des Affaires étrangères est souvent
de regarder au-delà des opérations à court terme qui se déroulent", a-t-il fait remarquer avant de
reprendre les mots du premier ministre haïtien Jean-Max Bellerive: "Nous devons bâtir un nouvel Haïti".
Back to Top
Section: Actualités
Headline: Harper remanie son cabinet
Page: 28
Source: La Presse Canadienne
Outlet: Le Droit
Byline: Vastel, Marie
Illustrations:
 Le premier ministre Stephen Harper a brassé ses cartes, hier, en procédant à un mini remaniement de
son Conseil des ministres.
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Le premier ministre Stephen Harper a apporté une "mise au point" à son cabinet, hier, faisant deux
déplacements qui pourraient faire tiquer au Québec.
Le lieutenant québécois de M.Harper, Christian Paradis, se retrouve aux Ressources naturelles, tandis
que Jean-Pierre Blackburn fait un déplacement latéral, passant du Revenu aux Anciens combattants, un
portefeuille d'une visibilité plutôt faible pour l'instant.
Plaidant une fois de plus que son gouvernement devait se préparer à faire face à une nouvelle situation
économique, maintenant que la récession est passée, M.Harper a souligné qu'un remaniement s'avérait
nécessaire en vue de l'implantation de la deuxième phase de son Plan d'action économique.
"La priorité première de la population et notre priorité première est et reste l'économie", a soutenu le
premier ministre lors d'un bref point de presse, à la suite de la cérémonie à Rideau Hall.
Parmi les autres changements, Stockwell Day passe donc du Commerce international au Conseil du
Trésor, où il surveillera les dépenses du fédéral. Vic Toews, qui présidait le Conseil du Trésor, se
retrouve à la Sécurité publique, et Peter Van Loan se dirige conséquemment au Commerce international.
Mais outre ce jeu de chaises musicales, c'est le changement de pions risqué de M.Harper avec son
lieutenant politique qui a attiré l'attention.
Car le ministre Paradis, qui était responsable des Travaux publics, devra dorénavant défendre aux
Ressources naturelles le dossier des sables bitumineux, fort peu populaire au Québec.
M.Paradis s'est cependant défendu d'avoir hérité d'un cadeau empoisonné, répliquant qu'il était tout à fait
à l'aise de travailler avec toutes les industries naturelles.
"On a toujours dit qu'on pouvait avoir une approche équilibrée entre l'économie et l'environnement. Et je
m'attends à ce que les industries pétrolières fassent leur part également pour arriver à ces fins", a-t-il
affirmé à sa sortie de Rideau Hall.
"Québécois de service"
L'Opposition n'a toutefois pas perdu de temps pour en conclure qu'il avait reçu le mandat de promouvoir
les sables bitumineux de l'Alberta auprès des Québécois, ce qui revient à "défendre l'indéfendable au
Québec", selon le chef du Bloc québécois, Gilles Duceppe.
Ne mâchant pas ses mots, en point de presse, en marge d'une réunion de son caucus à Québec,
M.Duceppe a traité M.Paradis de "Québécois de service", prêt à faire tout ce qu'on lui demande pour
rester ministre à tout prix.
Des propos "pathétiques", a rétorqué le principal intéressé.
Mais cette nouvelle nomination de M.Paradis a également fait sourciller le chef adjoint du Nouveau Parti
démocratique, Thomas Mulcair.
"Ce sera très difficile pour M.Paradis de se promener en faisant semblant que les gaz à effet de serre, le
défaut de respecter Kyoto, la gêne que les conservateurs ont provoqué à Copenhague, ne sont pas de
réels problèmes pour les Québécois", a argué le néo-démocrate en entrevue téléphonique.
Quant au ministre Jean-Pierre Blackburn, il ne sera pas beaucoup plus visible aux Anciens combattants
qu'il ne l'était au Revenu.
M.Blackburn a néanmoins vivement nié y voir une rétrogradation. Le ministère pourrait effectivement être
sous les feux des projecteurs, dans les prochains mois, alors que le Canada compte de plus en plus de
vétérans, revenus d'Afghanistan blessés et souffrant fréquemment du syndrome de stress posttraumatique.
La tension était toutefois palpable au moment de sa poignée de main avec le premier ministre, à la suite
de sa déclaration sous serment. Le Conseil des ministres du gouvernement conservateur restera donc
plutôt faible en présence québécoise. Maxime Bernier n'a d'ailleurs pas été réhabilité, malgré les
rumeurs, et demeure simple député.
Pour ce qui est des autres changements: Lisa Raitt s'est fait punir pour ses sorties embarrassantes alors
qu'elle était aux Ressources naturelles et a été relayée à un ministère beaucoup plus discret, celui du
Travail.
Il semble que même si le premier ministre l'avait défendue au moment de ses gaffes, MmeRaitt a déplu à
son chef lorsqu'elle a qualifié la crise des isotopes de "sexy". La ministre avait également mis en doute
les compétences de sa collègue Leona Aglukkaq, dans le dossier de la grippe A(H1N1). MmeAglukkaq a
conservé le portefeuille de la Santé.
De son côté, Rona Ambrose ressort de l'ombre, en quittant le ministère du Travail pour aller remplacer
M.Paradis aux Travaux publics.
Pour le chef libéral, ce remaniement n'est cependant que superficiel.
"C'est toujours la même équipe. Ils ont changé un peu les marionnettes, mais le grand chef est toujours
là: ça reste un gouvernement Harper", a réagi Michael Ignatieff, répétant du même souffle que le premier
ministre avait muselé les critiques de l'Opposition en prorogeant le Parlement jusqu'au mois de mars.
Mais si M.Harper argue que le gouvernement devra se serrer la ceinture pour résorber son déficit record,
il n'a pas cru bon de réduire la taille de son cabinet.
"C'est un petit pourcentage (des dépenses) du gouvernement et je pense que le gouvernement a besoin
de ces activités pour promouvoir ses politiques et les besoins de la population canadienne", a-t-il répliqué
aux questions d'un journaliste en ce sens.
Le remaniement ministériel aura vu neuf ministres changer de chaise, mais les poids lourds du cabinet
restent en place.
Ainsi, Peter MacKay demeure à la Défense, malgré les critiques de l'Opposition dans le dossier des
prisonniers afghans transférés par l'armée canadienne. Lawrence Cannon conserve les Affaires
étrangères et Jim Flaherty reste aux Finances.
Les changements
Sept des principaux ministres du gouvernement Harper changent de portefeuille, en plus d'ouvrir la porte
à un nouveau venu:
Christian Paradis passe des Travaux publics aux Ressources naturelles;
Jean-Pierre Blackburn passe du Revenu national aux Anciens Combattants;
Rona Ambrose passe du Travail aux Travaux publics;
Keith Ashfield entre au cabinet, au Revenu national et responsable de la région Atlantique;
Stockwell Day passe du Commerce international au Conseil du Trésor; Lisa Raitt quitte les Ressources
naturelles pour le Travail;
Vic Toews passe du Conseil du Trésor à la Sécurité publique;
Peter Van Loan passe de la Sécurité publique au Commerce international.
Du côté des ministres d'État, Diane Ablonczy laisse le Tourisme et les Petites Entreprises au profit des
Aînés, et Rob Moore se joint au cabinet pour s'occuper du Tourisme et des Petites Entreprises.
Back to Top
Section: ACTUALITÉS
Byline: Bélair-Cirino, Marco
Outlet: Le Devoir
Headline: L'aide se fait enfin sentir en Haïti; Les militaires canadiens sont à pied d'oeuvre à Jacmel et à
Léogâne
Page: a1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Une semaine après le violent séisme qui aurait fauché 200 000 vies et jeté à la rue 1,5 million de
personnes en Haïti, la communauté internationale accélérait, hier, sa course contre la montre pour éviter
une catastrophe sanitaire: sans accès à de l'eau potable, les risques d'épidémie menacent des dizaines
de milliers de personnes.
Les secours affluent vers les sinistrés du tremblement de terre, mais les médecins estiment que le grand
défi des prochains jours sera d'apporter des soins aux dizaines de milliers de personnes blessées et
privées de toit par la catastrophe. La distribution d'eau et de provisions reste difficile. «Je n'arrive pas à
comprendre ce qui prend tant de temps aux étrangers», a affirmé Raymond Saintfort, un pharmacien.
Malgré des ratés dans l'acheminement de l'aide dus à des problèmes de logistique et de coordination, «il
y a des progrès, nous avançons sur l'assistance humanitaire d'urgence», a fait savoir la porte-parole du
Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM), Emilia Casella. Le PAM a jusqu'à présent pu porter assistance à
«au moins 270 000 personnes», a-t-elle souligné.
L'armée américaine s'efforce de rouvrir le port de Port-au-Prince à la navigation et d'élargir le pont aérien
en restaurant la base aérienne de Jacmel et celle de San Isidro, en République dominicaine. Selon le
commandant adjoint des opérations militaires américaines en Haïti, le général Daniel Allyn, une piste à
Jacmel devrait être ouverte pour les vols d'avions C-17 aujourd'hui.
Les organisations humanitaires auraient finalement obtenu la priorité à l'atterrissage à l'aéroport contrôlé
par l'armée américaine, qui dit pouvoir désormais autoriser 100 vols quotidiens, contre 60 la semaine
dernière, a indiqué le Pentagone.
Du côté de l'aide canadienne, alors que le NCSM Halifax s'est stationné au large des côtes de Jacmel, le
NCSM Athabaskan a jeté l'encre, hier, à proximité de la ville de Léogâne, qui se situe tout près de
l'épicentre du séisme du 12 janvier dernier.
Les 500 militaires à bord des deux vaisseaux soutiendront les opérations de l'Équipe d'intervention en
cas de catastrophe des Forces canadiennes, communément appelée la DART. «Ils déblaieront les
gravats, fourniront des soins médicaux et dégageront la route afin que les véhicules puissent circuler
entre Jacmel et Léogâne», a affirmé hier le ministre de la Défense nationale, Peter MacKay. «Beaucoup
de gens sont blessés, privés de nourriture et d'eau et sont incapables d'avoir accès aux services
essentiels. La DART fournira des soins médicaux, de l'eau potable et du soutien technique dans la
région», a-t-il expliqué.
L'espoir de trouver des survivants s'amenuise
Dans son bilan rendu public hier après-midi, le ministre des Affaires étrangères, Lawrence Cannon, a
recensé 13 Canadiens décédés et 665 disparus. Au moins dix d'entre eux seraient paralysés dans les
décombres de l'hôtel Montana, à Port-au-Prince. Les recherches se poursuivaient encore sur ce site hier,
mais l'espoir d'y retrouver quelqu'un vivant s'évanouissait, une semaine jour pour jour après la
catastrophe.
Par ailleurs, Ottawa a annoncé de nouvelles aides financières de 80 millions de dollars, faisant du coup
augmenter son appui financier jusqu'à 135 millions, et ce, si les Canadiens donnent de leur côté 50
millions.
Dans la foulée de la conférence des pays amis d'Haïti qui se tiendra à Montréal lundi prochain, l'ancien
président américain Bill Clinton et les Nations unies profiteront de la 40e assemblée annuelle du Forum
économique mondial, qui se déroulera la semaine prochaine à Davos, en Suisse, pour inviter le secteur
privé à s'engager à long terme pour la reconstruction d'Haïti.
Selon des données communiquées hier par l'ONU, des promesses de dons de plus de 1,2 milliard de
dollars, provenant d'États, de personnes privées et d'entreprises ont déjà été recueillies.
L'insécurité grandit dans les rues de Port-au-Prince
Des milliers d'Haïtiens tentent de fuir la capitale en ruines pour gagner les régions rurales, tandis que
d'autres essaient de se regrouper pour protéger leurs maigres biens des pillards. A quatre rues du palais
présidentiel, des centaines de brigands étaient à l'oeuvre hier. «C'est comme ça. Nous ne pouvons rien
faire», a affirmé Arina Bence, un policier qui tentait tant bien que mal de tenir des civils à distance pour
leur propre sécurité. Des secouristes disent avoir dû soigner des blessures par balle, et ce, en plus de
celles liées au séisme.
C'est sous les acclamations d'Haïtiens que six hélicoptères Blackhawk, où étaient entassés des dizaines
de militaires américains, ont atterri dans l'enceinte du palais présidentiel effondré. «Nous sommes
contents qu'ils viennent, parce que nous avons tant de problèmes», a lancé Fédé Félissaint, coiffeur,
alors que les militaires s'apprêtaient à distribuer des repas et des bouteilles d'eau aux rescapés. Une
centaine de parachutistes se dirigeaient vers l'Hôpital général tout proche afin de le sécuriser. «S'ils
veulent, ils peuvent rester plus longtemps qu'en 1915», a ajouté M. Félissaint, en référence à l'année qui
avait marqué le début d'une présence militaire des États-Unis en Haïti longue de près de vingt ans.
«C'est une occupation. Le palais représente notre pouvoir, notre identité, notre fierté», a rétorqué Feodor
Desanges. Dans un quartier de Port-au-Prince, des habitants ont barré leur rue avec des voitures et ont
demandé à des jeunes de mettre sur pied des patrouilles. «On ne compte pas sur le gouvernement ici.
[...] Jamais», a laissé tomber Tatony Vieux, 29 ans.
La Croix-Rouge a dû interrompre une distribution d'aide dans le quartier de Delmas en raison d'une
«atmosphère tendue».
Le chef de la police haïtienne, Mario Andresol, a d'ailleurs réclamé l'aide des casques bleus pour faire
face aux 4000 détenus qui se sont échappés des principales prisons du pays à la suite du séisme. «Les
pillards ont tout simplement débordé mes gars. Ils ne peuvent pas les contrôler», a-t-il déploré. Plusieurs
font d'ailleurs régner leur loi dans le vaste bidonville de Cité Soleil, qui concentre tous les maux de la
société haïtienne.
Des milliers d'orphelins errent dans les rues
Alors que les autorités évoquent un bilan d'environ 200 000 morts, 250 000 blessés et 1,5 million de
sans-abri, des organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) estiment que des dizaines de milliers
d'enfants ont pu perdre leurs parents dans la catastrophe. «Nous n'avons pas de chiffres, mais il doit y en
avoir beaucoup», a expliqué le coordonnateur des secours d'urgence des Nations unies, John Holmes.
Des ONG estiment qu'ils seraient des dizaines de milliers d'enfants à avoir perdu leurs parents. «Pour
l'instant, ils sont dans la rue. A n'en pas douter, la plupart sont en train d'errer», estime Elizabeth
Rodgers, de SOS Villages d'enfants. «La question qu'on se pose, c'est qu'allons nous en faire quand
nous aurons fini de le soigner?», s'interroge pour sa part le docteur Assa Amit, d'un service de pédiatrie
d'urgence.
Back to Top
Section: Canada
Outlet: L'Acadie Nouvelle
Illustrations:
 Des membres de la famille du sergent John Faught ont accueilli avec tristesse sa dépouille, hier, à la
base des Forces armées canadiennes de Trenton, en Ontario.
Headline: La dépouille du sergent John Faught de retour au Canada
Page: 15
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Dateline: TRENTON, Ont.
Source: La Presse Canadienne
Recouvert du drapeau unifolié, le cercueil du plus récent soldat canadien tombé en Afghanistan est
arrivé, hier, à la base des Forces armées canadiennes de Trenton, en Ontario, accueilli par la famille de
la victime et la gouverneure générale.
Le sergent John Faught a été tué samedi à Panjwaii, dans la province de Kandahar, par un engin explosif
improvisé. Le militaire de 44 ans, originaire de Sault Ste. Marie, en Ontario, était membre du premier
bataillon du Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, d'Edmonton. Il est mort lors d'une opération de
patrouille à pied de routine avec des soldats afghans à proximité de Nakhoney, une ville située à environ
15 kilomètres au sud-ouest de Kandahar.
Hier, le cercueil de M. Faught a été transporté par une garde d'honneur d'un avion militaire vers un
corbillard sous les yeux de dignitaires et de membres de la famille du soldat.
Parmi ces dignitaires figurait la gouverneure générale du Canada, Michaëlle Jean, qui a étreint le sergent
Kevin Lincez, l'officier d'accompagnement qui a ramené au pays John Faught. Mme Jean a dû s'étirer et
se tenir sur la pointe des pieds pour serrer dans ses bras le sergent Lincez.
John Faught est le 139e soldat canadien à avoir péri en Afghanistan. Ses compagnons d'arme
l'appelaient affectueusement "Toast" à cause de sa personnalité "rugueuse".
Dimanche, au soleil couchant, plus d'un millier de soldats l'avaient salué pour une dernière fois à
l'aérodrome de Kandahar, alors que des collègues transféraient le cercueil dans un avion pour être
envoyé au Canada. Les collègues de John Faught le considéraient comme un soldat franc qui voulait
aider les Afghans.
La mort du sergent est survenue lors de la troisième attaque meurtrière perpétrée contre des troupes
canadiennes en autant de semaines.
Le sergent Faught en était à sa troisième mission en Afghanistan et il voulait demeurer dans l'armée deux
autres années avant de prendre sa retraite. Il laisse dans le deuil sa mère, Donna Crosson, et une soeur.
Back to Top
Section: Actualités
Headline: Premier départ de Valcartier
Page: 8
Source: La Presse Canadienne
Byline: Therrien, Yves
Outlet: Le Soleil
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
Un premier groupe de 120 militaires de Valcartier a quitté Québec hier pour prendre part aux efforts
d'aide humanitaire en Haïti. En majorité, il s'agissait de fantassins et des ressources médicales qui se
dirigeaient vers Jacmel. En principe, 800 militaires de Valcartier participeront aux opérations dans les
prochains jours. Ils s'ajouteront aux 124 soldats du DART déjà sur place et aux 500 autres à bord de
deux navires de la marine, les NCSM Athabaskan et Halifax. De l'équipement ainsi qu'une centaine de
véhicules seront acheminés par voies maritime ou terrestre au cours des prochains jours pour les
militaires de Valcartier. Près de 2000 soldats canadiens seront sur place pour une période pouvant varier
d'un à deux mois. Cependant, selon les besoins et les demandes du gouvernement haïtien, ils pourront
offrir leur soutien plus longtemps.
Back to Top
Section: ACTUALITÉS
Byline: Castonguay, Alec
Outlet: Le Devoir
Headline: Avions militaires C-130J - La facture bondit de 800 millions; Aucune retombée directe pour le
Québec
Page: a1
Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010
La facture d'entretien des avions de transport militaire C-130J sera beaucoup plus salée que prévu. Le
coût total sur 20 ans ne sera pas de 1,7 milliard de dollars, mais bien de 2,5 milliards, soit un bond de
800 millions, selon les informations obtenues par Le Devoir.
De plus, cet important contrat d'entretien des C-130J profitera très peu au Québec. Même si la province
abrite 55 % de l'industrie aérospatiale au Canada, le fabricant, Lockheed Martin, a décidé de remettre
l'entretien des différentes parties de l'avion entre les mains de compagnies situées hors Québec.
Il y a deux ans, le gouvernement fédéral a annoncé l'acquisition de 17 avions C-130J du constructeur
américain Lockheed Martin, pour un total de 1,4 milliard de dollars. Ces avions de transport, dont les
premiers appareils vont être livrés aux Forces canadiennes en juin prochain, remplaceront la flotte
vieillissante des anciens Hercules, arrivés au bout de leur vie utile.
Le gouvernement Harper avait toutefois décidé de négocier séparément le contrat d'entretien des avions
avec Lockheed Martin.
Au ministère de la Défense, on avait prévu que ce contrat d'entretien pour la nouvelle flotte coûterait 1,7
milliard de dollars sur 20 ans. Les Forces canadiennes avaient fourni ce chiffre aux journalistes.
Mais les négociations ont dérapé. Après deux ans de pourparlers difficiles avec Lockheed Martin, le
gouvernement a annoncé mercredi dernier, dans un communiqué de presse diffusé à 16h, qu'une
entente avait été conclue pour les six premières années, et non pas pour 20 ans, comme c'est pourtant la
norme. Le ministère des Travaux publics a été incapable ces derniers jours d'expliquer au Devoir les
raisons de la signature d'un contrat écourté. L'entente signée mercredi passé avec Lockheed Martin est
d'une valeur de 723 millions de dollars d'ici 2016.
Le milieu de la défense a été estomaqué mercredi de voir tomber un communiqué de presse alambiqué
au moment où tous les regards étaient tournés vers la catastrophe en Haïti. L'annonce du gouvernement
a été précipitée, au point où même Lockheed Martin n'a pas été prévenu. L'entreprise américaine
prévoyait tenir une conférence de presse sur le sujet en février.
Selon les informations obtenues par Le Devoir, en scindant ainsi le contrat, le gouvernement évite de
révéler la hausse de la facture sur 20 ans, dont le total passe de 1,7 à 2,5 milliards. De plus, le
gouvernement souhaite se garder une porte ouverte pour renégocier à meilleur coût les 14 années
restantes. Au ministère de la Défense, on affirme que le gouvernement va tenter de négocier un nouveau
contrat avec Lockheed Martin tous les cinq ans.
Une erreur d'Ottawa?
Le sénateur libéral Colin Kenney, qui dirige le comité sénatorial de la défense depuis plusieurs années,
affirme toutefois que le gouvernement fait fausse route s'il pense avoir un meilleur levier de négociations
avec Lockheed Martin en 2016. Selon lui, le gouvernement a fait une erreur en séparant le contrat
d'achat et le contrat d'entretien des avions. «Une fois que tu as acheté les appareils, tu dois les
entretenir. Le pouvoir de négociation pour faire baisser les coûts, c'est quand tu n'as pas encore acheté
les avions», dit-il.
Selon le sénateur Kenney, le gouvernement s'est lié les mains. «C'est clair que ça va coûter beaucoup
plus cher. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi ils ont fait ça, dit-il, ajoutant que lors de la renégociation avec
Lockheed Martin, le plus dur restera à faire. C'est comme pour une auto. Les six premières années, tout
va bien, on vidange l'huile et c'est tout. Mais après, les avions vont être plus fatigués. Il faudra davantage
d'entretien et de mises à jour complexes des moteurs et des systèmes électroniques. C'est là que la
facture va bondir. On ne sauvera pas d'argent en renégociant plus tard, au contraire.»
Une porte-parole au ministère de la Défense, Lianne Lebel, affirme que le gouvernement a fait un choix
approprié. «En s'appuyant sur une analyse détaillée menée durant la phase de définition du projet, le
gouvernement est certain d'en avoir pour son argent en ce qui concerne le service d'entretien de la flotte
de C-130J», dit-elle, refusant de confirmer ou d'infirmer la hausse de 800 millions de dollars sur 20 ans.
«Le budget global pour la maintenance ne peut être divulgué puisque cela pourrait compromettre les
futures négociations.»
Rien au Québec
Cette première tranche du contrat, d'une valeur de 723 millions, ne profitera pas au Québec. La porteparole du ministère des Travaux publics, Nathalie Bétoté Akwa, a fourni la liste des entreprises
canadiennes choisies par Lockheed Martin pour effectuer l'entretien préventif des avions au cours des six
premières années. Et aucune n'a pignon sur rue au Québec.
Ainsi, Cascade Aerospace, en Colombie-Britannique, fera une partie de l'entretien. Standard Aero, de
Winnipeg, fera la révision et la réparation des moteurs. HAAS, en Ontario, se chargera de l'élimination
des matières dangereuses, alors que Safran Electronics Canada, lui aussi en Ontario, s'occupera des
hélices et des minuteurs. Finalement, IMP Aerospace Group, basé à Halifax, s'occupera de l'entreposage
(à Trenton, en Ontario).
En arrivant au pouvoir en 2006, le gouvernement Harper a décidé d'éliminer les quotas de retombées
industrielles par province, de sorte que les fabricants étrangers qui remportent des contrats militaires
peuvent réinvestir dans la région de leur choix et sélectionner à leur guise les entreprises sous-traitantes.
A l'époque, le sénateur et ministre des Travaux publics Michael Fortier s'était battu au Conseil des
ministres pour garantir une part des retombées industrielles au Québec, qui abrite 55 % de l'industrie
aérospatiale au Canada. Sans succès.
Selon le porte-parole du Bloc québécois en matière de défense, Claude Bachand, on voit aujourd'hui le
résultat de «cette politique du laisser-faire des conservateurs». «Je suis très déçu d'apprendre ça, mais je
ne suis pas surpris», a-t-il dit au Devoir hier en fin de journée. M. Bachand rappelle que le Québec a une
masse critique d'entreprises dans l'industrie aérospatiale, qui a durement été frappée par la récession.
Selon le Bloc québécois, le gouvernement fédéral a la responsabilité d'aider à maintenir une grappe
industrielle aérospatiale forte au Québec, comme il l'a fait pour l'industrie automobile en Ontario. «On est
en train de déstructurer l'industrie québécoise en laissant les contrats se promener partout. On nuit à
l'expertise et à la compétitivité des entreprises du Québec. Il faut protester contre cette décision du
gouvernement», dit M. Bachand.
Back to Top
MEDIA SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS
LES SOURCES MEDIATIQUES ET ABREVIATIONS
AN (L’Acadie Nouvelle)
CG (Charlottetown Guardian)
CH (Calgary Herald)
CSun (Calgary Sun)
Ctz (Ottawa Citizen)
Dr (Le Droit)
Dv (Le Devoir)
EJ (Edmonton Journal)
ESun (Edmonton Sun)
FDG (Fredericton Daily Gleaner)
G&M (Globe and Mail)
Gaz (Montreal Gazette)
HCH (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)
HS (Hamilton Spectator)
JM (Le Journal de Montréal)
JQ (Le Journal de Québec)
KWS (Kingston Whig-Standard)
LFP (London Free Press)
LN (Le Nouvelliste - Trois Rivières)
MT&T (Moncton Times and Transcript)
NBTJ (New Brunswick Telegraph Journal)
NP (National Post)
OSun (Ottawa Sun)
Pr (La Presse)
RLP (Regina Leader-Post)
SJT (St. John’s Telegram)
Sol (Le Soleil)
SSP (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix)
TM (Télémédia)
TStar (Toronto Star)
TSun (Toronto Sun)
VSun (Vancouver Sun)
VE (Le Voix de L’Est, Granby)
VProv (Vancouver Province)
VSun (Vancouver Sun)
VTC (Victories Times-Colonist)
WFP (Winnipeg Free Press)
WStar (Windsor Star)
WSun (Winnipeg Sun)
Published by / Publié par
P&L Communications Inc.
95 Glebe Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1S 2C2
Phone: 613-231-5597 / Web Site: http://www.plcom.on.ca/