The 200 Canadian Armed Forces soldiers deployed to five vaccination centers in Montreal and Laval since Monday have not inherited the most prestigious tasks, but they perform them with a noticeable smile, even behind N95 masks.
“We have had boots on the ground since January 4th,” said proudly captain Christopher Rabbat, of 34e Combat Engineer Regiment, a group of reservists stationed at the Longue-Pointe base, east of Montreal.
At the vaccination clinic at the Olympic Stadium, a dozen soldiers were busy on Thursday welcoming citizens on their arrival, helping people with reduced mobility by providing them with wheelchairs and disinfecting the surfaces of the waiting area. Others were assigned to exit the vaccination area, to make sure everything was fine during the 15-minute wait.
HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT PHOTO, THE PRESS
Captain Christopher Rabbat, of the 34e Combat Engineer Regiment
Another group was assigned to administrative tasks: “We validate people’s identities and confirm their appointments. It also involves entering data into Clic Santé and into government systems, ”explains Captain Rabbat.
Our soldiers are sponsored by civilians who have been working on the same systems for months. So far, it’s going very well. The sites are very well organized, it’s been going for months.
Captain Christopher Rabbat
30 day mission
These soldiers, deployed following a request from the Government of Quebec, are mostly reservists from the Montreal region attached to 4e battalion of the Royal 22e Regiment, Fusiliers Mont-Royal and 34e Combat Engineer Regiment. “We come from all over the city. We come to work and we return home in the evening ”, summarizes Christopher Rabbat.
Their deployment is scheduled for 30 days in total.
They all received their third dose of vaccine, says the army. “It is obligatory”, underlines Captain Rabbat.
For the moment, the deployment is limited to four vaccination clinics on the island of Montreal (the Olympic Stadium, the Palais des congrès, the Carré Décarie and the Borough of Saint-Laurent), as well as that of the Place Sports Experts, in Laval.
The CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Center-du-Québec, which has to deal with a peak in hospitalizations, asked for help from the army on Tuesday. Daniel Paré, national director of the vaccination campaign, said Thursday that this request was “under analysis”. “We have a collection of data that [est en train de se faire] to find out if regions would have specific needs, ”he said at a press conference with Minister Christian Dubé to take stock of the situation on the crisis.
With the collaboration of Léa Carrier, Press