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ABOARD HMCS ST. JOHN’S—Three rigid inflatable boats speed across the choppy waters of Hudson Bay, slow alongside a fishing vessel and send soldiers clambering up the sides.
Two helicopters swoop in overhead. They slow to a hover 10 metres off the deck, ropes drop down and other soldiers rappel to the moving boat below. They hit the deck fast and hard and unclip from the ropes with guns at the ready.
It’s a blazingly quick assault as the soldiers take control of the vessel and take down the would-be suspect onboard in a roughhouse tackle that sends the man sprawling to the deck. In the blink of an eye, Canada’s elite warriors were out of the shadows.
Canadian special operations forces (SOF) soldiers — including members of Joint Task Force 2 — put on an unprecedented public display of their fighting talents Friday. Never before have JTF2 soldiers held such a demonstration to show off their skills, highly honed to take on terrorists, end hostage takings or in this case, board a suspicious ship on the high seas.
“I think they are pretty proud of themselves and they ought to be. They’re not in the public eye . . . and they will probably never will be for a number of operational security reasons,” said Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces.
“But it’s important for them to be seen to be contributing to Canada’s overall defence because a lot of what we do is in the shadows,” Thompson said.
After years of operations and rehearsals in secret, this coming-out show — apparently done at the behest of the Prime Minister’s office — was carefully calculated to send a public signal of fighting abilities.
Significantly the display was part of OP Nanook, the military’s annual northern exercise and featured Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a front row seat as he capped a week-long tour of the North that featured sovereignty as a key theme.
“We took this opportunity to . . . to demonstrate CANSOF’s capability as a deterrent and reassurance piece. Deterring those who would do harm to us and reassuring the Canadian public,” Thompson said.
Under Friday’s scenario, officials were shadowing an “eco-tourism” vessel in Hudson Bay off Churchill, Man., suspected of carrying “alien” passengers believed to be a threat. That theme combined two recent worries of the Conservative government — so-called “eco-terrorists” and illegal migrants arriving by boat.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Toronto Star website: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1246424–canadian-special-forces-soldiers-put-on-rare-display-of-fighting-talents