Evidence of meeting #4 for National Defence in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pandemic.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
Thank you.
You mentioned Iraq. Could you let us know what the 400-or-so troops who were deployed there are and have been brought home are doing now?
11:45 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
The Canadian Armed Forces members who were deployed to Iraq, I would classify their contribution essentially into two main categories. First it would be in support of combined joint task force Operation Inherent Resolve, which is mission to defeat ISIS that the Canadian Armed Forces has contributed to. That mission has contracted significantly in recent months. Some low-level collaboration and capacity-building training is ongoing. Second, the Canadian Armed Forces continues to contribute to the NATO mission in Iraq, albeit again in a more restricted posture.
Troops that came out of that joint operations area returned to Canada. In many cases they got some well-deserved leave and they have resumed force generation activities with their respective services.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
11:45 a.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Madam Chair, the previous discussion focused on overseas deployments.
Under Operation Globe, the CAF has already responded to a United Nations request for the transport of food and medical supplies on behalf of the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.
Has the CAF been able to accommodate all international requests for humanitarian assistance related to the pandemic so far?
11:45 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his question.
The Canadian Armed Forces responded with strength and pride to the request to provide humanitarian assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean. In fact, we were one of the only military forces, one of the only countries, that was distributing medical materiel to those countries in the Latin American and Caribbean basin, so that support was very highly valued.
Of course, we are working in harmony with our other allies to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance and medical materiel to other countries around the globe. Clearly, the Canadian Armed Forces do not have the capacity to handle that global demand independently, so we are working to cohere our activities closely with our allies.
11:50 a.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Congratulations, by the way.
Will the CAF be able to respond to upcoming pandemic-related requests?
11:50 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his question.
In the Canadian Armed Forces, as we go through this pandemic, of course we continue to learn about the requirements that we have domestically and internationally. What we are seeing, of course, is a very significant precipitous increase in the transmission of this disease internationally, so we will continue to monitor the requirements of the Canadian Armed Forces for Canada and Canadians, as well as for our allies, within our resources. As missions are assigned to us by the Government of Canada, we will work alongside allies to satisfy that demand globally.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'd just like to return to where I left off in the last round of questioning about the role of the Canadian Forces in long-term-care homes. I would just state once again that I am immensely proud as a Canadian of the role the Canadian Forces played in those long-term-care homes, however embarrassed I am, as a Canadian, that we had to ask Canadian Forces to step into those long-term-care homes.
On the topic of long-term-care homes, what are the lessons learned by the Canadian Forces about what we need to do to prepare to perhaps have to intervene again during the COVID epidemic, as we are seeing enormous spikes in the number of new infections? What kind of training or equipment needs have we identified for the Canadian Forces if there has to be another intervention before we get to a vaccine?
11:50 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
At the Canadian Armed Forces, we always strive to be a learning organization, to be able to dynamically capture, reflect on and share our lessons learned and observations from these types of operations. Operation Laser is no exception to that.
We have certainly learned a number of lessons from our operations inside long-term-care facilities, but also in other jurisdictions in support of Canadians. For example, specific to long-term-care, to address your question, we learned quite a bit throughout this pandemic in terms of how to properly don, use and take off medical-grade personal protective equipment. We've learned about some of the dynamics of mobilizing health services personnel to support some of our vulnerable populations. We've learned how to collaborate with different agencies in different levels of government.
Already, we've taken those lessons and shared them throughout the force. As we remain postured for additional potential requests for assistance, those troops will be going in having benefited from the tough lessons learned by some of their teammates.
I think the surgeon general might one to amplify one of those points.
11:50 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
Yes, Madame Chair.
In addition to that, we're obviously following the science and the scientific community's findings related to COVID. We know a lot more now about COVID compared with what we knew in the spring—obviously with regard to the mode of transmission and in what type of environment transmission is more likely. This will inform how we prepare our troops for potential additional tasks.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for coming today and for the great work all of you have been doing to make sure that Canadians are taken care of during this pandemic, and the role that all members of the Canadian Armed Forces have played in both force protection and protecting Canadians.
I want to follow up more on what Mr. Garrison was saying about preparation and the potential use of the Canadian Armed Forces in the next go-around of this pandemic. I know, for example, that the mayor of Winnipeg and the chief of Opaskwayak Cree Nation are making requests here in Manitoba for military assistance.
Has any of that filtered up to the Canadian Armed Forces level yet, and are you prepared to go, if required?
11:55 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
We are absolutely plugged in to the situation across the nation. We are working very closely with Public Safety, the government operations centre, and other government departments—the Public Health Agency, Health, and Indigenous Services Canada.
In fact, the Canadian Armed Forces, along with some of our other federal government partners, spent most of the weekend talking about the situation in Manitoba and many other jurisdictions throughout the country. We are quite in tune with the evolving situation, to answer your specific question about the province of Manitoba.
We have engaged in interactions with some of our provincial partners to better understand the requirements and needs. If a request for federal government assistance or Canadian Armed Forces assistance comes across, our chief of the defence staff will be prepared to provide advice to our minister and, if requested, to dynamically task troops to help Canadians in their time of need.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Thank you.
One thing I've always been quite proud of is how the Canadian Armed Forces started down the path of mental readiness. During the Afghanistan deployment we had the road to mental readiness program.
I was a little bit concerned when I read in the media last week about Major Karoline Martin, who was working in the long-term care situation in Ontario. She was testifying at the commission. She was talking about how devastated the members of the Canadian Armed Forces were when they entered some of these facilities, by the squalor and the miscare of residents and our loved ones.
Is R2MR again being provided to our troops, for those who were in the long-term care homes and are still somewhat devastated from what they experienced, and who are, as well, being prepared to go in again if needed?
11:55 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
I'm going to start answering this from a chain of command perspective, and then hand if over to the surgeon general to talk about specific medical supports that are being mobilized for our members.
Certainly we all recognize that Canadian Armed Forces members are often deployed into some very difficult environments overseas as part of some of our international operations, and from time to time, here in Canada as well. It's why the military force of last resort is mobilized.
Long-term care was particularly challenging because, of course, we are Canadians first and foremost, and we do not like to see fellow Canadians suffering. So we deploy, as a priority, in support of those vulnerable Canadians.
I will say this in terms of what we try to do proactively to mentally prepare Canadian Armed Forces members for these types of operations. First of all, we always aim, in all echelons, to destigmatize mental illness, to make sure that Canadian Armed Forces members know that, first of all, they're going to be going into difficult environments, and if they have challenges, they can raise those concerns with their chain of command.
Leadership and cohesion factor into this significantly. You referred to the road to mental readiness program that helps to better visualize that environment to ensure that arousal control and different techniques are put into place for CAF members when they operate in those environments.
I'll hand it over now to our surgeon general to talk about some of the medical-specific supports and psychosocial supports that are available to CAF members.
11:55 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
Obviously, prevention is key in mental health, especially when members are exposed to challenging situations like a long-term care facility. This was a critical aspect of the preparation of our troops, and the road to mental readiness program, which has existed for many years, has been tailored to the specific needs of those troops going into long-term care facilities.
So we were able to make sure that a specific environment was captured, which allowed us to have a customized preparation of our troops. During the deployment itself, social workers were deployed and made available on a 24-7 basis for all of our members who were deployed in the long-term care facilities. The units also deployed chaplains as part of the support team, if you will, and who helped with addressing some of the challenges that our members could have been facing. Obviously, our 24-7 telephone supports were still available for our members during that time, as well as our peer support program, the OSISS program, and we were able to provide the care and support that those members needed during the mission.
Post-mission, we put in place another road to mental readiness program to close the loop from the prevention part of the mission, and then we also instituted a post-deployment screening process by which we'll be able to identify any members who might not have been captured during the deployment or immediately after. We usually do that three to six months after the deployment.
All of this is part of our ongoing approach to screen and identify members early who may be suffering from mental health challenges. In addition to that, we're conducting a research study to try to identify the challenges that our members have been and are going through, with the aim of trying to learn how we can better prepare them for future missions similar to this one.
Noon
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Would that study include both those who have been deployed in Operation Laser and those who have been pretty much confined to quarters because of force protection measures taken by the chief of the defence staff?
Noon
MGen Marc Bilodeau
Yes, like any good study, we're trying to build a control group that will allow us to compare how that environment was more challenging than another one, and try to identify the specific trends related to that environment.
