ON JANUARY 17th the Pentagon “stood up” two infantry battalions from the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska. Known as the Arctic Angels, the division specialises in cold-climate missions. As many as 1,500 soldiers could be deployed in support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in Minneapolis. The city has become a flashpoint between protesters and federal authorities over Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the death of 37-year-old Renee Good, an American shot by an ICE agent this month.
But American soldiers were not the only ones who heard the call. Canadian Brigadier-General Robert McBride (pictured) is the deputy commanding general of operations for the 11th Airborne. His role in a division waiting to support ICE is a pointed example of how Canadian personnel are caught awkwardly between Mr Trump’s orders, Canada’s military mandate and public opinion.
Canada and the United States have exchanged military personnel for decades. Beyond joint task-forces, intelligence sharing, and organisations like NATO and Norad, Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) also regularly sends members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) on exchange programmes with American military units, sometimes for years.
“Exchange officers take an established position in a given unit and are subject to the orders and discipline of the United States military,” says Colonel-Maître Michel Drapeau, a Canadian veteran and military lawyer. He studied at the Joint Forces Staff College in Virginia, where he says he only differed from his American counterparts in “the colour of [his] uniform”.
Today the differences are more stark. Some of Mr Trump’s recent orders don’t align with the values of the Canadian armed forces and contradict Canadian interests. Operation Southern Spear has seen the United States blowing up small boats of alleged drug traffickers, killing more than 100 people; the capture of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, was hardly Canadian policy; Mr Trump’s threats to take Greenland by force are putting strain on NATO, prompting Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, to consider sending Canadian troops to Greenland.
Embedded Canadians must follow American orders while also adhering to Canadian military laws and protocol. In the past Canadian soldiers in joint operations have been excused from following orders that conflict with Canada’s military regulations, a process known as caveating. This puts strict limits on what they may do while with another country’s armed forces. Colonel Drapeau assumes, and hopes, that Canadian troops are not involved in standing up the 11th Airborne. “Canada’s sovereignty must come first,” he says. “There would be hell to pay if that was allowed to take place.” As this story was published, neither the dnd nor the prime minister’s office had responded to questions about whether General McBride, or other Canadian personnel serving in the United States, have been caveated. In a statement sent after publication, the dnd said: “There are currently no active-duty members involved in operations in Minnesota, nor would they be allowed to be without approval by the Government of Canada. At this time, no such request has been made.”
Recent public statements by both armed forces identify several high-ranking Canadians who have gone on exchange. Including General McBride, at least six brigadier-generals, one rear admiral and three major-generals have been scattered across the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Space Force and the Department of Defence. Lower-ranked personnel on exchange are not routinely identified, but there may be hundreds of Canadian soldiers serving in the United States.
Publicly available information suggests that several are deployed within units that have been carrying out some of Mr Trump’s most controversial orders. One Royal Canadian Airforce pilot is on exchange with the United States Air Force, flying the C-17 Globemaster III, a large transport aircraft capable of tactical airdrop and airlift missions. “Flight data shows USAF C-17 flights flying from [DHS] facilities in the States to CECOT in El Salvador,” says Steffan Watkins, an independent analyst and researcher. As this story was published, the DND had not answered questions about whether a Canadian pilot has flown any of these missions. On January 21st it said Canadian armed forces were “not involved”.
Mr Watkins says data also shows the operation of E-3G Sentry aircraft near Venezuela. These aircraft often have multinational crews, including Canadians. The planes have been used in Operation Southern Spear. There are also Canadian personnel working in the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West, Florida, providing intelligence for operations, including those across the Caribbean.
A SOUTHCOM public affairs officer said that “questions about the location or allocation of [CAF] troops and the work they are conducting should be directed to the CAF.” Canadian troops already work closely with the United States in the Caribbean. Operation CARIBBE, the “enhanced counter-narcotics operations” that sees the Canadian armed forces deploy ships and aircraft to the Caribbean on rotation, has been active since 2006. Canada and the US Coast Guard regularly work together in search and rescue, surveillance and disrupting drug- and human-trafficking.
Mr Trump’s aggression has brought this co-operation into question. His repeated threats of annexation have also forced Canada’s armed forces to draw up plans for responding to an invasion by the United States for the first time in more than a century. That will probably remain a hypothetical concern. Canada’s involvement in Mr Trump’s foreign adventures is not. ■
Editor’s note (January 21st): This story has been updated with comment from the Office of the Minister of National Defence