National Defence Committee on Nov. 8th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

There are only ten seconds left, Mr. Hawn. We'll have to carry on with you later.

That ends our first round. We move on to five-minute rounds now, starting with Mr. McGuire.

[Joe McGuire, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think it's appropriate in this week in particular to see how well we're taking care of our soldiers when they leave or before they leave Afghanistan.

What is put in place in the way of medical services of the mind and body before they leave and once they get back? We are told by some of the caregivers that the service is not as adequate as it could be. Could you give an opinion on that and tell us just what is put in place in Afghanistan before they leave and what is here for them when they get back?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

What is in place in Afghanistan before they leave?

[Joe McGuire, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Yes, before they leave.

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

There are actually few things I am more proud of than the way we are able to look after our men and women in Afghanistan when they fall victim to an ambush, or an IED strike, or whatever else it might be.

It starts with having trained an appropriate number of soldiers—not medics, but soldiers—in tactical combat casualty care, which actually has proven to be life-saving. It has saved lives of soldiers. This is one soldier saving another soldier's life by virtue of the training he's had. You hear these stories when you go over to visit and have so-and-so pointed out who's done this.

We call it a role 3 facility, which is effectively the first line of surgical intervention and life-saving and which is Canadian-led at the airfield in Kandahar. It is certainly something you should see when you visit, because it brings a tear to your eye, in a positive sense—it really does—when you see those men and women. I've seen the same folks over there over a number of visits, in some cases in very tense, very stressful situations, because something's just happened and the patients are coming in. I would qualify it as a world-class facility in its own right at the airfield in Kandahar.

With the medical evacuation capabilities in this, we're part of a coalition. Coalition forces have in place the necessary medical evacuation capabilities to get the wounded immediately into the hospital, and lives have been saved in that hospital.

The next leg in the journey, if I can put it that way, for those who have been stabilized but are not well enough to stay in theatre and require further treatment, is a facility in Landstuhl, which I believe you've heard about, which again is absolutely world-class.

I had an opportunity to visit there about three or four weeks ago. This is the hub, from a U.S. military perspective, for both Afghanistan and Iraq, and there probably isn't a better facility of its kind in the world. When I say world-class, I really do mean world-class.

To a man and to a woman, our soldiers deployed overseas have complete confidence that if they fall, they will be looked after.

[Joe McGuire, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

You're saying, sir, in your presentation that “Outside the wire, they eat, sleep, and live under conditions that most Canadians would find difficult to imagine.” When they come inside the wire and before they come home, not just with physical wounds, do we have a team of psychologists or mental health people?

They're under this constant stress. I can just imagine what it might be like—or maybe I can't imagine what it might be like. But when they come back in, with the relief they might feel or whatever scars they might bring with them when they come back inside the wire, what kind of support do we have, or what kind of diagnosticians do we have there who would provide for them, to find out the things we can't see?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Make it a short response, please.

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

A short response? I was hoping to give a long one.

On two or three visits overseas, on the day I landed there was a situation where Canadians were either killed or seriously wounded. I had an opportunity to go, literally within hours, to the place where it happened and talk with soldiers, to see how they react and how they reacted to what are extremely traumatic incidents. Time and time again, over the last eight or nine months now, I've been so impressed with how they are able to cope with these challenges.

It's about leadership. It's also about training. It's about talking about these things before deploying overseas. It's about not having a fear of talking about them immediately after the incidents. That's at the sergeant or master corporal level, getting together with their soldiers after an incident like that.

The proof, I suppose, will be in the pudding, and we won't know for some time just how serious or not this issue might be in terms of mental health and critical incident stress and so on. It's an issue that from a force employer perspective I discuss regularly with my command surgeon, as recently as in the last week.

You need to talk to the director general of health services and the surgeon general about this when they appear before you—I think they will be speaking to you—but the early indications, from the first rotation who have just returned to Edmonton, are not causing any alarm bells to sound at this stage.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Thank you, sir. We'll move on, and we will be in Edmonton tomorrow—

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

There you go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

—so we'll be able to follow up on that. Thank you.

Ms. Gallant is next, and then Mr. Bouchard.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

General Gauthier, at some point the U.S. will commence the orderly withdrawal of troops from Iraq. If they do so before the job is done, what impact, if any, will the perceived retreat have on our efforts to quell insurgents in Afghanistan?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

That's an interesting question. I would have to think about that one a little bit, because to be perfectly honest, in my day-to-day job I'm just not that focused on Iraq, but on Afghanistan and the other 19 missions we have around the world—3,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen and airwomen deployed around the world.

I'm not sure you can draw a direct connection between the two. They are quite different operations, and we as military view them, obviously, as military operations. They're completely different circumstances, and what we tend to do in a pure military context is to pay careful attention to lessons learned that from a military perspective we can apply from one theatre to another theatre. That includes, from an intelligence perspective, watching threat trends to see if something that has popped up here might begin to find its way into Afghanistan.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

So there's not a concern, then, that Iraq-based al-Qaeda members would redirect their efforts or attention toward Afghanistan?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

I suppose it's possible. It's not something that I honestly have watched that closely, and therefore I can't give you a really helpful answer to it.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

NATO has plans to stand up rapid response battalions in each of its member countries. Has Canada assigned a unit to carry out this mission or this role yet?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

No.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Okay.

Several weeks ago, there were MPs who actually compared our soldiers to terrorists. What kind of impact on morale in Afghanistan did those comments have?

[An hon. member]

Could you repeat that?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

I missed the last part of what you said.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

What impact is that having on our soldiers overseas?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

I'm not aware of something like that being said, but clearly if it was, I think from a soldier's perspective they would just ignore it, quite frankly.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Okay. We've had witnesses here—

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Ms. Gallant, just a second.

She posed a question and the gentleman has answered it, I think quite adequately.

There is a point of order.