Cold hearted, arrogant, elitist BIATCH:
Soldiers stranded as Clarkson uses backup plane
Troops were to fly back to home base from Bosnia
Chris Wattie
National Post
Thursday, October 02, 2003
The homecoming for 150 Canadian soldiers who were to fly back to their Edmonton base last week after a six-month tour in Bosnia has been delayed for up to 11 days, because the only backup for their military transport plane was taking the Governor-General on a much-criticized world tour.
Canadian Forces spokesmen said the soldiers' return to Canada was delayed on Saturday when a mechanical problem grounded their CC-150 Polaris transport, the military version of the Airbus A-310.
"That aircraft developed a hydraulic leak in Edmonton and was unfortunately grounded for 24 hours," said Captain Dave Muralt, a spokesman for the First Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg. "So that one chalk [load of troops] had to be cancelled."
The air force has five Polaris transports, but Capt. Muralt said two of them are mainly cargo carriers, a third is undergoing maintenance and the fourth is in "VVIP configuration," to fly Adrienne Clarkson on a 20-day, $1-million tour of northern nations.
Without a backup, the military had to squeeze returning soldiers on to later flights or fly them home on commercial airlines.
Capt. Muralt said some of the troops are still waiting for a flight. "The delay could have been up to 11 days," he said.
Said Jay Hill, the Canadian Alliance defence critic: "This is inexcusable. These [soldiers] have waited months to be reunited with their families and it's indefensible that they'd be forced to wait because of this high-priced junket by the Governor-General."
Defence officials could not say whether the aircraft carrying Mme. Clarkson on her tour would have been available to pick up the soldiers in Bosnia had it not been with the Governor-General.
But the "VVIP" Polaris can be converted to a troop carrier and was used last month to carry Canadian soldiers to Kelowna, B.C., to fight forest fires that threatened the city.
Elsie Wayne, the Conservative defence critic, said Mme. Clarkson should have known better than to use a military aircraft. "For the Governor-General to be using that Airbus when it was needed by Canadian soldiers, well, I'm just absolutely dumfounded," she said.
"That's a disgrace."
While the soldiers were waiting on the tarmac in Bosnia, the Governor-General was arriving to a red-carpet welcome at the northern Russian city of Salekhard, visiting monuments and museums, and meeting with regional officials and attending a state dinner hosted by the regional governor.
Ms. Clarkson later dropped the puck at the ceremonial face-off of an informal hockey game between local officials and some of the 59 Canadian delegates who joined her on the trip.
Mme. Clarkson has defended her decision to spend $1-million, over and above her $17-million annual budget, on the trip to three northern nations, accompanied by Canadian intellectuals, cultural figures, scientists, artisans, ambassadors and political activists.
"It's in the process of things that are done between countries," Mme. Clarkson told Global National before leaving on the trip. "We've got a wonderful delegation and we've got a wonderful message."
Mme. Clarkson began her trip in Russia and will travel on to Finland and Iceland before returning to Canada on Oct. 15.
She has provoked outrage for inviting 59 Canadian personalities -- including Kevin McMahon, a filmmaker who recently completed a documentary about Mme. Clarkson and her philosopher husband, John Ralston Saul.
The soldiers left in Bosnia are among about 1,200 Canadian troops, most of them from the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, being rotated home from Bosnia after spending more than six months with a NATO-led peacekeeping force in the former Yugoslavia.
They are being replaced by a battle group based on the Royal Canadian Dragoons regiment, of Petawawa, Ont., effective Oct. 8.
cwattie@nationalpost.com
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