Military & Police to Invade Vancouver for 2010 Training Ex.

From Feb 9-13, 2009, several hundred military and police personnel will descend on Vancouver for 'Exercise Silver'. Bud Mercer, head of the RCMP's Integrated Security Unit, states in this article that they will be highly visible. Although the Olympics & Afghanistan may strain the military to some degree, as mentioned below, military representatives always claim they are under-funded as a way of promoting the idea that they need bigger budgets.

Military brass struggles to safeguard Olympics

ROD MICKLEBURGH, Globe and Mail, January 31, 2009

VANCOUVER — With frigates in the harbour and jets zooming overhead next month during the first active Olympic security exercise, residents here will not need a reminder that Canada's hard-pressed military will play a major role in one of the largest peacetime security operations in the country's history.

An estimated 4,000 members of the armed forces will be seconded to Olympic duties in 2010 – far more than the 2,500 to 2,800 military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.

There are concerns that the simultaneous needs of both military operations could strain existing resources. Earlier this month, Colonel Christopher Coates, head of the Air Division, expressed worries about having to juggle helicopter demands for Afghanistan and Olympic duties at the same time.

“Yes, there will be a strain for us to carry out both operations,” a military source said this week. “But will we be able to do it? Yes, of course. We can surge,” he said, referring to the practice of boosting numbers to a location when needed. “Being stretched is nothing new for the military.”

Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie, a veteran of numerous Canadian peacekeeping missions, agreed that Olympic security demands will put pressure on the military's already strained resources.

“Our army fits into Maple Leaf Gardens, with about 3,000 seats left over,” he said Friday. “Of course, the military is pretty good at logistics, at looking after itself. It doesn't have to descend on hotels and dining halls.

“So I believe the military will be able to cope with [Olympic security and combat in Afghanistan at the same time], but it will certainly stretch them, there's no doubt about that.”

Department of National Defence representatives and the head of the armed forces' Joint Task Force for the 2010 Games, Rear Admiral Tyrone Pile, declined comment on the military's Olympic role.

However, Adm. Pile, who is based at the Esquimalt naval base on Vancouver Island, will attend a Monday news conference to discuss security arrangements for the Games. Equipment and vehicles to be used by Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit will also be on display. Details of the ISU's first active training exercise, dubbed Operation Silver, running from Feb. 9-13 in Vancouver and Whistler, are also expected to be announced.

“The public are certainly going to see us,” said Bud Mercer, assistant RCMP commissioner and head of the ISU. “There will be a lot more play than in our previous exercise, which was essentially a table-top operation.”

Two frigates and three maritime coastal defence vessels, some aircraft and a light contingent of troops will participate from the military, sources indicated.
Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, said the military's role in Olympic security will undoubtedly be a major challenge. “Obviously, in 2010, there's going to be a huge spike in demand, to be doing two things at once, but it doesn't mean it's time for panic. They've obviously known about it since it first came up.”

While supplying troops may not be a problem, there could be difficulties in special areas, Mr. Taylor said. “When you've got to have explosive experts in Afghanistan and in Vancouver at the same time, that's where you start running into problems.”

Not all commentators share those views, however. Author and military observer Gwynne Dyer said the Olympics will be a great public-relations boost for the armed forces. “Of course they'll have the numbers,” he said. “It will be the guys who aren't in Afghanistan, and they're going to be out there looking pretty, on the streets … for traffic control, crowd control. Public exposure, you know? There's no downside.” The real anti-terrorism work will be done by police and security professionals, Mr. Dyer said.

But John Thompson, president of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think tank, said securing parts of the Winter Olympics could be a nightmare, particularly the single highway leading to Whistler.

An advantage the military will have in deploying troops for the Olympics is that they will not require months of extensive training as they do before heading to Afghanistan, he said.

Many soldiers will likely be used in the mountainous areas surrounding Whistler. Last year, the federal government called for tenders to construct and service 10 temporary and “austere” camps to accommodate as many as 1,800 military personnel between North Vancouver and Pemberton, just north of Whistler.

Despite the anticipated use of 4,000 members of the armed forces, the military's 2010 role pales beside the 16,000 federal troops on active duty during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Those numbers were thought necessary because of the number of previous terrorist acts by the FLQ.

With a report from Josh Wingrove in Toronto