National Defence committee  For that particular credit course, yes, we are. Certainly, the army currently runs the army operations course, which the air force participates in. It teaches captains how to function as effective staff officers in preparation for promotion to major. All of our major allies have

National Defence committee  I think anything that would give the United Nations the capacity to better succeed in its mission planning and execution would be of absolute value. It might not necessarily focus on Canadian contributions and participating in the missions, but as an overall planning tool, I thin

National Defence committee  For that particular task force, sir, we have provided the initial and we'll provide the follow-on gender adviser who will be there to ensure that all gender considerations are taken into effect in any sorts of plans or missions executed in theatre. We ran the task force through

National Defence committee  The generic training that we provide to the military should have prepared them to go. For the specific things that we did on child soldier training, for example, every member of the task force would have participated in that.

National Defence committee  That would have been in June, that would have been....

National Defence committee  They would not have. That training focused on our air task force alone. We export our training to other countries so that they will train their trainers, and they can run their own training program. There would have been no international participation on that particular serial.

National Defence committee  We regularly work with the French army as well. My understanding is that we would not have trained any of those forces directly, although we may well have trained some of the instructors who subsequently trained them.

National Defence committee  The army has been ready to provide soldiers at any point for any missions in which the government calls upon us to partake. Our mandate really focuses on ensuring we are able to prepare the soldiers and have them ready for deployment. We naturally had a huge focus on operations

National Defence committee  Military operations are exceedingly complex these days. On the military side, it is what we refer to as “enabling capabilities”, things that allow other elements to work. Aviation support is critical, and medical support. Any types of intelligence gathering or analysis are of a c

National Defence committee  Previous centres, and the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in particular, dealt at a different level than what we do at the Peace Support Training Centre. We really focus on the tactical training, for troops and civilian partners and international partners who will be deploying. Somet

National Defence committee  Yes, sir. We're preparing the individual who is going to deploy to be ready to survive and thrive in the environment, as opposed to how to run a mission or to actually accomplish a specific mission.

National Defence committee  That is a very broad question, Mr. Robillard. I only deal with matters pertaining to the Canadian Army. Lieutenant-Colonel Allain and myself both have experience in United Nations peace missions, especially in Haiti, in my case, and in Bosnia, in the case of Lieutenant-Colonel A

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, committee members, thank you very much for the opportunity to present to you today. As you mentioned, I'm here with Lieutenant-Colonel Jacques Allain. We represent really land-focused training. Colonel Allain, of course, commands the Peace Support Training Centre and I