Western Standard - September 05, 2023


Not enough soldiers to stand on guard for thee or anybody else

Mentioned
Paul Cellucci
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Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

152.0

Word count

797

Sentence count

47

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, addressing the Senate Standing Committee on Emergency Preparedness. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks about the role of the Canadian Armed Forces in responding to disasters and disasters, and the importance of an armed forces that is designed and trained to fight alone, and to fight with our allies on land, sea and air.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I would like to open my testimony by describing my two hats here today.
00:00:04.700 First, as a soldier, retired, who served our country in peace, war, and peacekeeping operations for 27 years.
00:00:12.060 And second, as an emergency manager, retired, who served in operations locally, municipally, provincially, federally, and internationally for 13 years.
00:00:23.560 But first, if I may, a quote from ancient times.
00:00:27.980 Every country has an army.
00:00:30.000 Theirs, or somebody else's.
00:00:33.640 Let me start as a soldier.
00:00:35.520 The role of the Canadian Armed Forces is, in my opinion, to protect the sovereignty of Canada,
00:00:40.600 to meet our commitments to the defense of North America, to meet our commitments to NATO,
00:00:45.980 to support international security, to carry out peacekeeping operations in support of the UN,
00:00:51.600 and perform other tasks as assigned by the Government of Canada.
00:00:55.360 These commitments mean we must have an armed forces that is designed and trained,
00:00:59.760 to fight alone, and to fight with our allies on land, sea, and air.
00:01:04.340 A side benefit of a force like this is that it can provide aid to civil authorities and aid to the civil power.
00:01:12.760 Again, this is a benefit, not a primary goal, or even a secondary, of the Canadian forces.
00:01:18.180 That said, the soldiers I commanded in my career were extremely proud to serve their fellow citizens in times of emergency,
00:01:25.560 like the Red River floods in 1997, and the ice storm power outage in 1998.
00:01:31.980 But let me make three points.
00:01:35.200 First, these actions take away from their primary role.
00:01:38.580 Second, these actions drain time, resources, and funding from their primary role,
00:01:43.920 a role which has been extremely underfunded for decades.
00:01:48.200 And third, these actions can normally be met far better by other agencies
00:01:52.520 if we had committed resources to emergency management,
00:01:56.160 which is a discipline which exists in our country.
00:01:59.620 A statement made by Paul Cellucci, the American Ambassador to Canada,
00:02:04.020 after September 11, 2001,
00:02:06.560 when I was personally briefing him in Alberta on critical infrastructure protection.
00:02:11.540 He said, and I quote,
00:02:13.140 Security trumps trade.
00:02:16.600 If we are seen as a parasite, not a partner in defense of our allies,
00:02:21.180 we are immediately, and in long term, have consequences.
00:02:26.140 With that, let me switch hats to being an emergency manager.
00:02:31.080 Nationally, Canada has a system called emergency management.
00:02:35.020 You probably have not heard a lot about it, especially in this pandemic,
00:02:38.620 because it has been ignored, and in some cases, silenced.
00:02:42.980 Emergency management has four functions,
00:02:45.260 mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
00:02:49.200 I will think we will talk about these four functions frequently today.
00:02:54.260 Emergency management is an all-hazards approach, 1.00
00:02:57.840 natural hazards, including biological, geological, and meteorological,
00:03:01.880 but also human-induced hazards, both non-intentional and intentional.
00:03:07.000 We need to discuss this all-hazards approach more today, 1.00
00:03:10.200 as resources from one hazard can be used for other hazards,
00:03:13.640 and the process for each of those four functions is identical.
00:03:18.880 Emergency management works across all groupings in our country,
00:03:22.700 from citizen to first responder,
00:03:25.300 to municipal government, to provincial government,
00:03:28.040 to federal government, to international agencies.
00:03:30.980 I hope we discuss these organizations' roles today in detail.
00:03:34.560 But what about the private sector?
00:03:37.480 85% of critical infrastructure in Canada is owned and operated,
00:03:42.060 and assured to a great extent, by the private sector.
00:03:45.740 But clearly, all orders of government have a role to play
00:03:48.300 in ensuring the operation of our critical infrastructure,
00:03:51.220 to ensure the safety and the security of our citizens.
00:03:54.420 And the private sector plays an essential role in emergency management
00:03:58.440 when linked to emergency management properly.
00:04:02.040 The same is true for non-government organizations,
00:04:04.500 like the Salvation Army, the Red Cross,
00:04:06.720 the Mennonite Disaster Services,
00:04:08.740 HAM radio operator clubs, and many others,
00:04:11.360 both paid and volunteer.
00:04:13.700 So let me sum up.
00:04:15.280 Emergency management has been long neglected by our country.
00:04:18.680 In fact, in 2008,
00:04:20.600 the Senate Standing Committee on Emergency Preparedness
00:04:23.860 wrote a scathing, detailed report about it.
00:04:26.880 If anything, Canada has gone backwards.
00:04:30.100 Just ask the members of SOARIM,
00:04:31.920 the senior officials responsible for emergency management
00:04:34.840 from all 13 of our provinces and territories.
00:04:37.980 I put it to you that that is why today you are meeting to discuss,
00:04:41.800 I believe, incorrectly,
00:04:44.120 using the Armed Forces of Canada to do emergency management.
00:04:48.020 The Canadian Armed Forces do have a role in emergencies,
00:04:51.200 but it is the force of last resort.
00:04:56.880 Captain dancing,
00:04:58.940 ward across the country of耶 CF,
00:04:59.620 For the unfriendly broadcasts ofifs,
00:05:01.320 thank you so much for yourgirls.
00:05:02.540 Thank you.
00:05:03.760 Am I suppose I got the one who passed the 50th minute
00:05:04.460 from the war.
00:05:05.980 We have to reach the Cup.
00:05:06.360 And that we have to reach
00:05:07.220 the qu Treatment también
00:05:07.940 for our good reasons.
00:05:10.140 At last resort,
00:05:10.380 you will have to be able to pass
00:05:11.860 our retreats on time.
00:05:12.640 ...
00:05:14.180 And nevermind.