(Montreal) The Canadian Armed Forces have been carrying out a military exercise since Thursday on the islands of the St. Lawrence, east of Montreal. The Coast Guard was invited to join. One of the objectives: to learn to cooperate in the event of a disaster – for example a flood – which would require the evacuation of civilians. The Press went for a field day.
Posted at 4:57 p.m.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
If it is a usual training for the army, there is something different: the Coast Guard is at its side, while preserving its independence, it is underlined in broad strokes on both sides. ‘other. “It’s an idea of the Canadian Armed Forces that we decided to join,” explains Keven Raymond, director of incident management in the Canadian Coast Guard. “We are not doing any combat operations. It’s not in our mission, it’s not in our values. It was an opportunity for us to get our ships out,” continues Mr. Raymond.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
During these exercises, the Coast Guard has a “transport” role for the Armed Forces, explains Commander Audet. For four days, the Coast Guard has been dropping off the soldiers at the places where they are going to train, leaving them on a beach, for example.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
“We anticipate that in the future, we may have to work together in cases of national crisis, for example a flood, where it is not the time to learn to work together”, explains Commander Jonathan Audet .
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“It’s not a contact approach in Normandy: we make a relaxed landing of the soldiers, so that [la Garde côtière] practice moving people around,” says Mr. Audet. “We don’t want people to think that the Coast Guard is becoming military. Because it is not”, adds the commander.
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Guillaume Chapman is the captain of the CCGS icebreaker Martha L.Black, which has a crew of around 30 people. “We left Montreal this morning, we were in the area of Habitat 67. We embarked 77 soldiers, we anchored, then our boats took the soldiers to Île Sainte-Thérèse. It was pretty easy,” laughs Captain Chapman. “It’s easy because we specialize in that,” says Émilie Proteau-Beaulieu, spokesperson for the Coast Guard.
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The Coast Guard celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. “Today, we did the exercise with soldiers, but we are training in anticipation of a real incident where we would need to provide assistance to the population,” said Émilie Proteau-Beaulieu, spokesperson for the Coast Guard.