Fort McMurray and Foreigners: Who helps in Fort Mac?
By Lynne Bell
A few weeks ago, as Fort McMurray burned, Russia offered assistance to Canada, stating they would dispatch massive water bombers along with firefighting specialists. The offer-made officially on May 8 via the Russian embassy in Ottawa-also prompted an embassy spokesperson to state that Russia “stands ready to help our Canadian partners to fight the ongoing wildfires in Alberta.”
This very public offer by Russia prompted the federal government to reply that the offer “would be studied.” At the time, some Canadians stated this country's answer should be something along the lines of: “Yes, please!” and many comments by the same people included the words “gift horse” and “mouth.” Others wondered if Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea-and the concerns of this country's Canada's large Ukranian-Canadian population-was a factor in Canada's non-committal response to the offer.
However, on further examination, it seems that Canada received-and declined-offers of firefighting assistance from-to name a few-Australia, Mexico, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Taiwan and the USA. To date, none of these offers of aid have been officially accepted by Canada. However, the reasons for Canada's polite turn-downs may be more practical than political.
According to a reporter pal of mine in Calgary-who has been covering this story pretty extensively- blazes like the Fort Mac fire are best left to professional firefighters, and in this case, even members of the Canadian Air Force (and their heavy-lift helicopters) have been confined to support and disaster relief roles, such as by ferrying supplies into remote communities near Fort McMurray, proving that even the Canadian Forces are leaving firefighting to the professionals.
“Here's the thing,” says my friend. “Both the provincial and the federal governments coordinate the response and support for the people on the ground, but not without advice and not on a frivolous whim.”
“The federal government turned down international offers for several reasons, none of which were decisions that were made lightly or without consulting the experts who are actually in Fort Mac, and this includes the fire chiefs involved.”
“Do you really believe,” continues my pal, “That the firefighters in Fort Mac want to be tripping over a raft of internationals who speak several diverse languages, who all have different training and who do not have any familiarity with Canadian (firefighting) protocols or the terrain involved? And the airspace is super-crowded right now, so that's another huge logistical problem.”
“All of these and more are logical reasons to turn away international help at this time. We don't have the time and resources to babysit right now.”
He adds that in cases in which foreign firefighters are brought in to assist Canadians, it's because firefighters from this country aren't available-because they're battling blazes in their home provinces. Even then, fire personnel from outside Canada only come here to assist if they are trained to Canadian standards and are able to fight fires in situations that are similar geographically-for the safety of everyone involved.
Putting aside the possible political motivations behind Russia's offer of assistance, my friend says that all of Canada must work together and support the community of Fort Mac.
“The federal and provincial governments are doing the best they can and more, “ he says. “They are the people we democratically voted in and they are doing their jobs.”
“And whether you voted for them or not, they need all of Canada's support to help the people of Fort McMurray.”
Apparently always doing wrong in eyes of the western provinces
By Kelly Running
Well, once again the West condemns Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, what did he do now? He refused help from foreign countries in dealing with the Fort McMurray situation.
Apparently “true” Canadians are thankful for the offers, but with Trudeau declining help this concept of “true” Canadians, I guess, doesn’t include him?
It seems that whatever the new Prime Minister does, there is no chance of him making the “blue” western provinces happy. Blue, yes a play on words meaning western provinces are both currently sad and conservative.
I’m sure his decision to decline the help wasn’t simply an off the cuff decision. He wasn’t just sitting at his breakfast table eating cereal being like, “Hmmm… Nah, let it burn. Now leave me to my Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”
The decision to decline help, I’m sure, also took more than just him to deliberate upon it. We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship, and the Prime Minister, although the head of the country and in charge of decisions is largely propped up by those elected to government. He’s not in it on his own, he’s got many people discussing and helping him make decisions.
Besides, the political implications of accepting help from foreign countries would be huge. Would the United States be alright with Russian water bombers potentially flying near their air space? Thinking probably not as although Russia is now an ally, there were once extremely strained relations, the Cold War comes to mind which wasn’t really all that long ago. Then recently the issues in the Middle East have also had Russia and the Americas at odds with each other, although thankfully not to the same point as the Cold War.
So, I feel as though accepting help is a huge decision on the political landscape, a landscape that I guarantee you we know nothing about. We’re not politicians, we’re not aware of all the intricacies of running this country, and although we pretend to know everything we really don’t. Oftentimes we know whatever the media knows and the media doesn’t always know everything. Something might be classified here or someone might refuse to comment there, it’s not always the whole picture.
Additionally, people jumped on Justin Trudeau for not heading out to Fort McMurray right away. Now everyone has their own opinions, but had he jumped on a plane immediately would he not have actually hindered people trying to do their jobs? It would have become a larger media circus than it was and he would have pulled the attention away from those there. Yes, he’s a leader and it’s nice that he went out there, but at the same time he’s not a fire fighter, not a police officer, and not an EMT; he’s not someone that would be out rushing into danger as he’s the Prime Minister, not an emergency responder.
Besides the same people wondering where Trudeau is are the ones that happen to forget that Stephen Harper didn’t immediately arrive in Slave Lake during their fire in 2011. He waited, so why become upset with Trudeau? Oh, right, sorry, it’s because he’s Liberal and the West doesn’t like Liberals… and our minds cannot be changed, they’ve been made up.
To be honest that’s a very frustrating attitude for me to watch. If we close our minds and are unwilling to listen, to see the good in things, or to make broad statements without really analyzing the facts we’re only hurting ourselves and our neighbours.
Obviously I’m more left wing than I am right wing, but the difference between political parties in Canada is virtually nothing. There are subtle differences, but at the end of the day are the Liberals going to completely change the face of Canada? Not likely.
How about we stop condemning him based on preconceived notions, basically that Pierre Trudeau was his father and that the Liberals haven’t been friends of the West in any recent years… Really, he’s been in for less than a year, on the political front that’s no time to really do anything anyway, so we need to accept he’s in for the term and work with him, make him understand. Hold him to his own merits. If election time rolls around again and he’s still despised, then head out and vote for someone else.
