I mention Canada’s response to the earthquake in Haiti in episode six of the Roger Kingkade Podcast (now with 40% less echo!). I wanted to elaborate here on my blog.
This could easily be a post about how embarrassed the Liberals should be of Ujjal Dosanjh and his comments aimed at politicizing a major catastrophy. No shame at all. I’ll let the speed at which he recanted his remarks speak for itself.
Still, there are some who figure that the Canadian response to the crisis is inadequate. I don’t know if this is genuine sentiment or political axe grinding. Either way, I totally disagree.
The government of Canada has done enough… at the moment. This isn’t a matter of cost or obligation. It’s a matter of coordination and doing what is necessary. Don’t lose sight of that. Canada could reasonably have deployed tens of thousands of troops and other response teams along with boats full of food and water and other supplies and dropped them all on Port-au-Prince just as the rest of the world is coming to the rescue. This would not have been the metered response that the devastated country needs.
I can’t help but think that this sentiment comes from Canadians who are more concerned with keeping appearances than doing what’s best given the situation.
Canada isn’t the authority on how to handle an earthquake. Let’s not pretend we are. We have a very good asset in the DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) and our armed forces are more than capable. Still, organizations like Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders are much better at dealing with these situations since that’s pretty much what they exist for. Put it this way: If disaster relief were a foot race, the Red Cross would be Usain Bolt and Canada would be Rita McNeil, by comparison.
Let’s enable humanitarian organizations to do what they’re good at and, when their work is well underway and it’s time for us to step in as a government, Canada can do what we’re good at; help police the state as needed and aid in the reassembly of good government… which is when Haiti will really need us if they are to have a lasting recovery from this catastrophe.
Humanitarian aid isn’t a red carpet event. It’s not the right place to be seen. Sometimes, hanging back is the best way to allow the process to work.
fuchie
on Jan 25th, 2010
@ 11:34 am:
I like to think of the Red Cross as Michael Phelps and Canada as anyone who competes as a Canadian olympian – but your point is valid.