WEBVTT

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Canada works closely
with Central American,

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South American, and Caribbean
partners to enhance

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regional security and
interoperability in the area.

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To continue to grow
this international partnership,

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the <i>Operational</i>
<i>Support Hub - Latin America</i>

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<i>and the Caribbean</i> (OSH-LAC)
was activated

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in Kingston, Jamaica
in August 2020.

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The Commanding Officer
of the Hub Activation Team,

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Lieutenant-Colonel Yves Lavoie,
and the Commander

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of Canadian Forces
Joint Operational Support Group,

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Colonel Daniel Smith
joins us today to discuss

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the collaborative
work being done

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as part of this
newly enabled force.

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Col Smith, what is
an operational support hub

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and why is this one so important
for the CAF and its partners?

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Broadly speaking, an operational
support hub is a physical entity

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through which
a hub-and-spoke distribution

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and support model can work.

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Its primary focus is

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a location from which
support operations

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can be conducted in the Latin
America-Caribbean region.

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Principally, humanitarian
assistance disaster relief

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operations but it can support
other operations,

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exercises or activity
in the region.

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LCol Lavoie, can you describe
some of the training

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that has been done
with the Jamaican Defence Force

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and why this is key
to the CAF presence in the area?

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We stressed from day one
that we really wanted to have

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the senior
leadership involvement

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on the Jamaican Defence Force
site for us to be tactful

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and insightful into where
the Jamaican government wanted

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to develop the capabilities.

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Having said that, we also did
focus on some hands-on training.

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Simple matters,
such as pallet-loading systems

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for aircraft equipment
movement and so forth,

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was done more
at the operational level

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and it was indeed
very well-attended.

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What work has been done
in the last few months

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to have the facility
operational?

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The staff here have been working
on five-year plans

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for OSH-LAC on what
do we need to do.

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One of the things that's
important in that is

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the partnership
with the countries.

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In this case, of course,
we're specifically talking

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about Jamaica
and the Jamaican Defence Force.

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And we are actively working
to keep those partnerships open

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and active because of the mutual
benefit to both of us.

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What measures and considerations
is the hub taking

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to address COVID-19?

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So one thing that I have to say
on that from the get-go is

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that we take public
health measures

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in the Canadian (Armed)
Forces very seriously.

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All the Canadian public health
measures standards were applied

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pre, during and post-deployment.
For instance, before deployment,

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we all had to conduct
COVID-19 tests.

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Of course, the tests had to be
negative. We were in confinement

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for three days at CFB (Canadian
Forces Base) Kingston

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to make sure that we would
set the conditions

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for the Jamaican Defence Forces

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to be satisfied
with the application

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of public health measures
in Canada and in Jamaica.

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♪