By David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen From National Post Canada

EDMONTON – Canadian Forces Maj. Damon Dyer points to a map dotted with icons showing dozens of military units on the move against the enemy.

“It’s February and it’s 25 degrees Celsius and we’re in the Caribbean,” explains Dyer, an operations officer.

Except it isn’t. It’s Edmonton. It’s snowing and overcast. And it’s -4 degrees C.

But unfolding on hundreds of computers in a nearby tent city is Unified Resolve 16, a United Nations sanctioned mission to deal with a humanitarian crisis on a fictional Caribbean island.

Canada’s soldiers, largely absent over the last decade from UN missions, could be returning to the fold under the Liberal government.

Last week in Ottawa Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon , pledging to provide more help to the world organization.

Unified Resolve 16, which recently ended, had a scenario where a ruthless dictator had turned on some of his own people. The inhabitants of the country of West Isle were starving and under siege. West Isle’s army was fighting back against a UN force.

The push is to get the humanitarian aid to the people

“We are in combat operations but it is definitely a peace enforcement or humanitarian-oriented mission,” Dyer explained. “The push is to get the humanitarian aid to the people.”

The exercise was planned well before Liberals formed the new government last fall.

But there is a new mindset in the Canadian Forces now which is looking towards playing more of a role in UN operations.

“There is a move to see what can be done to support the UN, a situation the previous government wasn’t interested in embracing,” said Walter Dorn, a professor at the Canadian Forces Staff College in Toronto.

“The Canadian military is starting to think more seriously about what it can bring to the table.”

In the 1990s, the Canadian Forces contributed more than 3,000 soldiers to UN operations. But that number is less than 30 today.

In late January, officials with the Department of National Defence, the RCMP and other government departments came together for a session to begin work on a new peacekeeping policy.

Dorn expects that some in the Canadian military won’t be too happy with the Liberal government’s emphasis on UN operations. For more than a decade they have been used to counter-insurgency operations, of the kind that took place in Afghanistan.

But others, Dorn noted, appear keen to accept a return to a former role as it could provide a steady stream of overseas missions. In addition, such operations are no longer just monitoring ceasefires; they run the gamut of providing humanitarian aid to, at times, using force to intervene on the UN’s behalf.

In the case of Unified Resolve, Canadian troops are transported to West Isle to stop the country’s dictator from abusing his own citizens.

On some of the computers the soldiers can see icons, representing vehicles, moving on the screen and engaging the dictator’s troops. On other screens are incoming messages about the progress of the battle or scenarios developed to test how military staff will respond. In one case a Red Cross convoy showed up unexpectedly at a unit’s location. In another, civilians are reportedly trapped in the basement of a church and staff have to decide what to do.

Even though the $2.5 million exercise is simulated on computers or on maps it still involves some 900 people, many in support roles.

“It’s a pretty big exercise,” said Lt. Col. Derek Prohar, chief of staff of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.

The exercise ran for a week, most of that on an around-the-clock basis.

For Brig. Gen. Trevor Cadieu, commander of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, the exercise is an opportunity to test how well his staff can deal with an overseas mission.

“This exercise is critical primarily for the leadership of this brigade,” he explains. “What we are allowed to do on this exercise is to stress test some of our planning procedures.”

With the exercise finished, the battle is put on pause and will start up again in May, this time with some 4,000 soldiers, supported by armoured vehicles and tanks, actually sent into the field at the army’s training site at Wainwright, Alta.

The end result will be that by July the brigade will be ready to assume its role as the high readiness task force, ready to go wherever the governments needs it.

Some of the soldiers talk about recent rumours of a peacekeeping operation in Burkina Faso. Others have wondered whether they would be used to support the mission in Iraq.

Brig.-Gen. Cadieu doesn’t know what comes next. He expects about 200 of the soldiers will be sent to Ukraine, to continue the Canadian training mission there. Another 200 are likely to be assigned to NATO’s Operation Reassurance in eastern Europe.

“We don’t know yet what the implications of the government’s recent announcements, specific to this brigade,” he said, referring to the Iraq mission. “But the one thing we do know is we will be ready for whatever comes.

IMAGES:
A Canadian Forces member intently watches her computer screen during Unified Resolve 16. Some 900 Canadian military personnel took part in Unified Resolve 16, a computer-based planning exercise aimed at preparing Edmonton-based troops as Canadaís high readiness force starting this summer. David Pugliese/ Postmedia News
David Pugliese/ Postmedia News Canadian military personnel examine movements of troops on a map during a recent simulated exercise. The exercise involved supporting a United Nations response to a humanitarian crisis, a scenario that some defence analysts say will be something the Canadian military will be doing more of in the future.
MCpl. Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Canadian peacekeepers prepare auto atropine injectors during chemical defence refresher training at Camp Ziouani in the Golan Heights in 2002.
AP Photo/Jorge SaenzIn this Tuesday, March 30, 2010 file photo, United Nations peacekeepers patrol an earthquake survivors makeshift camp in Port-au-Prince.

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