Tuesday, December 21, 1999

Militia on alert for Y2K By STEPHANIE RUBEC, OTTAWA BUREAU
Toronto Sun

OTTAWA -- More than 450 Canadian Forces militia have been put on high alert to protect Toronto from any Y2K furor.

The defence department got a guarantee from these part-time soldiers that they'll be the front line of defence if Toronto needs to call in the military.

Maj. Stephane Grenier said that even if most militia members have jobs in the civilian world, 450 of the 1,700 living in the Toronto area have promised to don their uniforms if duty calls.

Grenier said they've been told to celebrate New Year's Eve with their families and friends, but to be ready to take action.

"We're basically the last line of defence for the federal government," he said, adding the reservists will be on alert for 12 hours and then asked to be available in case they're needed.

But Prime Minister Jean Chretien said that Canadians should dismiss doomsayers. He said he doesn't believe anything will go wrong, but conceded that some might use the expectation of trouble to create some.

Chretien and eight key cabinet ministers will be holed up in Ottawa New Year's eve in case the government needs to invoke the Emergency Measures Act to deal with blackouts or other major problems.

[ENDS] "If we're overwhelmed with what we have in place for our firsts efforts, then we'll call (regular soldiers from Petawawa) out," Grenier said. These full-time soldiers would be based at the Fort York, Moss Park and Dennison armouries. Grenier said the armouries house military equipment, vehicles and will have working cafeterias and beds in case soldiers have to work Jan. 1.

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), December 22, 1999

Answers

This is a pretty badly written article. Where does the high alert come from. They've got regular jobs, and have been told to enjoy Christmas with their families, but to be ready. That doesn't sound exactly like "high alert" to me.

-- lanina (lanina1963@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

John that one is a keeper. I think that it will be yanked from online pretty quick. You would never see an article like this in a major US paper. Not likely Clinton would be "bugging out" *VBG*

The idea of Chretien being in a "bunker" and Clinton out partying just blows my mind :o)

Maybe Chretien is pissed off he wasn't invited.

By the way I think that Y2K awareness in Victoria went up a couple of knotches after the guy got caught with explosives in Port Angeles.

People are telling me about the signifigance of that. Bad sign.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), December 22, 1999.