We Were America’s Best Friend

by Major Tim Dunne (retired)

The Al Qaeda attack of 11 September 2001 caused a finger to be poked into my chest so hard it left bruises.

I was a Canadian Army officer assigned to the NATO headquarters in Naples, Italy, attending an Armed Forces Network reception for visitors from the Pentagon a week following 9/11. As the only Canadian at the reception and wearing my Army uniform, I stood out among my American colleagues and the members of other allied nations.

When I was introduced to the U.S. Defense Department contigent visiting U.S. personnel assigned to NATO’s southern European headquarters in Naples. Italy, I wished I had declined the invitation. The gentleman to whom I was just introduced turned red-faced and began poking me in the chest, telling me that “Your country has to start being more careful who they allow through your border.”

No amount of explanation that the 9/11 terrorists entered the United States directly and not through Canada would interrupt his rant. Sensing that the visitors disliked my presence, I left.

This wasn’t the only time that Canada was cast as the bad guy. In the blackout of August 2003, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the city’s media that the problem was in Canada and, in response to direct questions, he reiterated, that the problem was definitely up there in Canada.

The power interuption was centered in Ohio.

President Donald Trump told Americans that Canada is taking advantage of us as a justification to impose a twenty-five per cent tariff on all Canadian imports into the U.S. and a ten per cent tariff on energy. Perhaps this is partly in an effort to reopen free trade negotiations; partly to steer Canada toward assimilation into the American union; and partly in retribution for Prime Minister Trudeau’s Sunny Days Tweet on 29 January 2017, “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada,” as President Trump ordered a temporary ban on all refugees and a number of Muslims from entry into the United States.

But we’re still friends, right?

Much has been written and said about the long-time alliance and friendship between Great Britain and the United States, each saying of the other that there are no better friends, no better allies. As a rule, Canadians don’t go looking for an argument with the U.S., particularly, as it was so elegantly and accurately phrased by former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, as the mouse lying beside the sleeping elephant. But occasionally even the elephant needs to be reminded that the Canadian mouse has sometimes been more useful than the British bulldog.

There were a significant number of Canadians who rejoiced during the celebrations for the centennial of the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. Royal Marines entered the White House, dined on the meal that Dolly Madison had made, looted the residence of whatever they wanted and set the White House ablaze. But they weren’t Canadian raiders. It was the military forces of George III, the same king against whom the American Revolution was fought. Canada achieved limited nationhood only in 1867.

But other than the several abortive attempts of U.S.-based Fenian Irish nationalists from 1866 to 1871 to seize Canada and exchange it for Irish independence, there has been a peace between the two northern American nations so deep that the border is largely undefended, other than the conventional border crossings. Over the decades the relationship that developed between the two has deepened and became a living example of where thou goest so go I.

First World War (a.k.a.: “World War One” in the U.S.)

When the United States deployed troops to European operational theatre on April 6, 1917, Canada had been there since December 1914. The Canadian Army fielded a surprisingly large force of four frontline divisions within the Canadian Expeditionary Force comprising infantry, artillery, mounted and auxiliary units. Approximately 620,000 men and women served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force from a country with a population of only 7.5 million people. Surprisingly, an estimated 40,000 Americans joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Second World War (a.k.a.: “World War Two” in the U.S.)

Canada immediately responded to the German invasion of Poland and Britain’s declaration of war with Germany in 1939. With a population of 12 million, more than one million Canadians, augmented by Newfoundlanders (at the time Newfoundland was a British colony), served in the Canadian military, and the nation turned itself to war production. Canadian soldiers served in Italy, Northwestern Europe and Southeast Asia.

The Royal Canadian Navy escorted the trans-Atlantic convoys to the British Isles carrying much needed food, equipment and raw material. Along the way, Canada helped defeat the German surface and submarine fleets in the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military operation of that war, beginning in 1939 and ending only with Germany’s surrender. Canadian fatalities were 45,000 men and women and another 55,000 were wounded.

D-Day’s Operation OVERLORD, the allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on 6 June, 1944, involved landing approximately 156,000 troops in Normandy: 23,250 Americans on Utah Beach, 34, 250 on Omaha Beach, and 15,500 airborne troops; 24,970 British troops on Gold Beach and 28,845 on Sword Beach, and 7,900 airborne troops who deployed further inland. But between the two was 21,400 on the Canadian Army’s Juno Beach. At that time, Canada’s population was a modest 12 million people, less than one-tenth of the U.S. population of 138 million and Britain’s 38 million.

The 1st Special Service Force, known as “The Devil’s Brigade,” was an American–Canadian commando (parachute) unit of the United States Fifth Army. Organized in 1942, the soldiers trained at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana, and served in the Aleutian Islands, Italy and southern France before being disbanded in December 1944. American troops honored their Canadian comrades with a Pass in Review and salute.

From its earliest days and into the Second World War, Canada was a British ally. Britain’s Statute of Westminster of 11 December, 1931, accorded independence to Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, New Zealand and South Africa to formulate and implement their own foreign policies.

Canada may have entered the Second World War aligned with Britain, but that changed on 18 August, 1940, when Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King and U.S. President F.D. Roosevelt met in Ogdensburg, NY, to establish the Permanent Joint Board on Defence^[1] as a Canadian-American advisory body. This meeting was at Roosevelt’s initiative and effectively uncoupled Canada from Britain as its principal military ally and opened the deep and intimate military relationship between the two North American nations.

Operation METROPOLIS, (October 22-23, 1949)

On the overcast afternoon of October 22, 1949, a dozen B-26 light bombers took-off from Floyd Bennett Field and simulated bombing New York City. Minutes later, three radar stations in outlying areas, two manned by Canadians, one by Americans, had picked up the bombers and flashed instructions by radio to eight waiting Canadian Vampire jets and eight U.S. F47 Thunderbolts. “Operation Metropolis” was the first post-war joint Canadian-U.S. (CANUS) operation.

Canadian Air Marshal W.A. Curtis, Chief of the Royal Canadian Air Staff, and his U.S. Air Force counterpart, General H. S. Vanderberg, tested the integration of the two North American air force reserves, and along the way stimulated public interest, increased morale of the reserve forces and encouraged recruiting in both countries.

This was the first of many joint military war games, exercises and operations and another step to increased integration of our military forces and the creation of the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD).

Korea (1950-1953)

North Korean troops invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, drawing the United Nations into the three-year conflict. The initial UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 82 recognized the invasion as a “breach of peace” and demanded an immediate end of hostilities. North Korea ignored the Security Council, which led to resolution 83 of 27 June, 1950, telling North Korea to withdraw its armed forces to the 38th parallel, the internationally-recognized boundary between the two Koreas.

Finally, the Security Council passed UNSCR 84, establishing the U.S.-led United Nations military force comprising troops from 14 nations and medical detachments from five others. Initially commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway assumed command on 11 April, 1951.

Staging through Fort Lewis, Washington, more than 26,000 Canadians served on land, at sea and in the air during the conflict, with 516 Canadian fatalities.

Operation LOOKOUT (Late 1950s)

The United States’ and Soviet Union’s missile race led to more and increasingly advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and methods of detection of any incoming missiles. In the United States, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, renamed to the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972, developed satellite-based systems to observe ICBM by the heat blooms from the launch vehicle and the heat from the warheads re-entering the atmosphere.

Canada was invited to participate through membership in the North American Air Defence Command (later Aerospace Defence Command) partnership for the defence of North America and the work being done by the Canadian Armaments and Research Development Establishment (CARDE). CARDE’s studies of atmospheric composition used infra-red equipment on high-latitude balloons, and the RCAF’s CF100 Canuck aircraft could reach an altitude of 45,000 feet with instrumentation in its wing-tip tanks designed for infra-red detection.

Working with NASA, the CF100 flying at 40,000 feet observed the launch of astronaut John Glenn into space on 20 February, 1962, and subsequent launches of Alan Sheppard, Walter Schirra, Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper.

Vietnam and Operation GALLANT (1973)

A very public war broke out in 1965 between South Vietnam, allied with the United States (and other allies) and North Vietnam. By the early 1970s South Vietnam’s ability to conduct military operations effectively was questionable, and the United States was anxious to negotiate a peace agreement that would allow withdrawal of its forces from Southeast Asia “with honor.”
On 27 January 1973, the United States, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (Viet Cong) met in Paris and signed the “Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam.” The agreement also created the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS), comprising Canada, Hungary, Indonesia, and Poland, to act as a neutral party in investigating disputes and in supervising some aspects of the agreement.

With its 1160 personnel and its headquarters in Saigon, the ICCS established a series of teams to conclude hostilities and establish the environment of peace and security, the most important of which was to oversee the exchange of civilian detainees. Other responsibilities included the release of over 32,000 prisoners of war, to monitor the flow of restricted war materiel into South Vietnam, and to monitor and investigate all breaches of the ceasefire.

The Canadian response was faster than the ICCS could integrate, and there were casualties. An ICCS helicopter shot down on 7 April, killing all nine onboard including Canadian Captain C.E. Laviolette. Two Canadian officers, Captains Ian Patten and Fletcher Thomson, were kidnapped by the Viet Cong near Saigon on 28 June and held for 17 days.

“The Canadian Caper”

The U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, was taken over by a crowd of university students and supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini on 4 November, 1979, taking embassy personnel in the compound hostage for 444 days.

Six Americans escaped capture that day. One took refuge with the Swedish Embassy and five others stayed at the apartment of the U.S. consular chief, Robert Anders.

Canada’s Ambassador in Iran, Ken Taylor, sheltered the Americans by billeting them in Canadian homes and describing them as Canadian tourists. Over the next several weeks, a fiction was developed that provided Canadian passports for the six, who would pose as Canadian film-makers working with a dummy film production company that was contemplating a possible production in Iran. They departed Iran on a regularly scheduled airline flight. The Canadian Caper was the inspiration for Ben Affleck’s movie Argo.

Operation CALUMET (1981 and continuing)

In September 1978, following meetings sponsored by the United States and embracing Egypt and Israel, the Camp David Accords marked the start of a process that would end a thirty-year long state of war between Israel and Egypt and a peace treaty on 26 March, 1979. On that day, US President Jimmy Carter sent identical letters to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin assuring both that the United States would take the necessary steps to ensure the establishment and maintenance of an alternative multinational peacekeeping force, the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), to replace the United Nations Emergency Force II, which would expire several months later.

While not an original contributor to MFO, on 28 June, 1985, Canada agreed to take over the duties of the Australian/New Zealand contingent the following spring. The Canadian Contingent MFO (CCMFO) was formed in September 1985 with the title Operation CALUMET. The initial Canadian unit comprised 140 Canadian Armed Forces personnel and nine CH135 Twin Huey helicopters. Their duties included helicopter operations in support of observer inspections and verifications, support to an infantry battalion, VIP transport, medical evacuations, unit training, administrative and logistical tasks, command and control and search and rescue operations.

The Canadian helicopter unit was withdrawn in March 1990 when rotary wing support duties were assumed by an American unit. Subsequently, the Canadian contingent’s presence has continued with about 30 military personnel at MFO Headquarters in El Gorah, Egypt.

In June 2022, the Government of Canada announced the extension of Operation CALUMET to March 2025.

Operation TEMPEST – Response to Hurricane Andrew (September-October 1992)

Hurricane Andrew was the first tropical storm of 1992, reaching hurricane strength on 22 August, a Category 4 storm with winds exceeding 185 mph (300 km/h). Andrew first struck the Bahamian island of Eleuthra on 23 August, destroying over 470 homes and leaving 1,700 people homeless. Florida was Andrew’s next target, the hurricane hitting south Florida the following day. More than 250,000 Floridians were left homeless and 82,000 businesses destroyed or damaged. It then made landfall in Louisiana with winds of 125 mph (200 km/hour).

Within days, the Canadian government dispatched a team of airfield engineers. The logistics ship Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Protecteur left Halifax on 10 September 10, loaded with building supplies, tools and vehicles for use by the airfield engineers, arriving in Miami four days later. Over the next two weeks, Protecteur’s crew joined the engineers in rebuilding Pine Villa Elementary School and Mays Middle School, two Dade County schools. Dental and medical personnel from the ship joined cooks in volunteering their services at an American Red Cross relief centre set up at the Pine Villa School.

Hurricane Katrina (2005)

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, 37 Canadian Red Cross volunteers went to Louisiana and Texas to assist the American Red Cross to provide safe shelter, warm meals and relief to 135,000 evacuees at 470 Red Cross shelters. A Canadian military aircraft carried the first group of 25 Canadian volunteers and five Foreign Affairs staff members to Houston, Texas.

The hurricane overwhelmed American resources and by 31 August U.S. Coast Guard ships were directed from other areas in the U.S. to assist with the crisis. Canada’s Air Force reconfigured two Griffon helicopters for search and rescue and sent them to the Cape Cod Air Station from 3 to 12 September to replace U.S. Coast Guard resources.

11 September 2001 (9/11)

On 11 September 2001, Canada accepted 238 flights carrying 33,000 passengers at Canadian airports when the U.S. closed its airspace to all aircraft until they were permitted to land at U.S airports again. The attack invoked article five of the North Atlantic Treaty:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

NATO launched Operation EAGLE ASSIST 2001 in which NATO Airborne Early Warning Force (NAEWF) aircraft provided assistance in the aerial surveillance of the continental United States. The five NATO E3A aircraft, with Canadian military personnel integrated into the aircrew, provided aerial surveillance and security operations from 9 October to 16 May.

Military operations in Afghanistan

The al Qaeda attack on the United States also triggered a Canadian response to support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, to assist international efforts to combat terrorism and to help introduce and support a democratically elected government in in that benighted country. Canadian commandos of Joint Task Force 2 (JTF 2) arrived in December 2001, augmented by other Canadian soldiers the following month, beginning a series of Canadian military operations. Canadian combat operations in Afghanistan cost an estimated $18 billion, with 158 Canadian soldiers and seven civilians killed and more than 1,800 wounded.

2008 Operation UNIFY – Response to Hurricane Gustav

Hurricane Gustav struck Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Cuba in late August as a Category five hurricane, causing extensive flooding, killing an estimated 110 and causing $18 billion (US) in property damage, and forcing the evacuation of almost two million people in southern Louisiana.

The United States and Canada signed the Civil Assistance Plan on 14 February 2008, formalizing the long-standing Canadian-U.S. military co-operation for civil emergencies in either country. It was first used with Hurricane Gustav as the storm approached New Orleans when the United States Government requested Canadian assistance. Under the name Operation UNIFY, the Canadian Armed Forces sent a CC177 Globemaster from 429 Squadron and two CC130 Hercules. The Globemaster arrived at Lakefront Municipal Airport, near New Orleans on 31 August to assist with the evacuation of civilians to Little Rock, Arkansas. The two Hercules were placed on standby at US Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, for search and rescue operations.

Operation UNISON – Canadian response to Hurricane Katrina

In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina swept across the southeastern United States with winds up to 174 mph (280 km/hour). It killed 1,833 people and caused some $125 billion in damage, with New Orleans taking the brunt of Katrina’s impact. Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey are the two costliest cyclones on record.

The federal department Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada coordinated with and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency for Canadian aid to assist with recovery efforts. The Canadian government deployed a three-ship naval task force comprising HMC Ship Athabaskan, Toronto and Ville de Québec, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir William Alexander, three Sea King helicopters and one Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 light, twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter.

As part of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) military assistance pact, the Canadian Armed Forces provided several Griffon army helicopters and crews to the New England states to replace the U.S. Coast Guard’s search and rescue helicopters assigned to Gulf Coast search and rescue operations. Operation UNISON involved over 1,000 personnel from the Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian Coast Guard who served under the operational command of their American colleagues who coordinated relief operations. The precedent for this level of assistance was established with the Canadian response to Hurricane Andrew which struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. HMCS Protecteur brought relief supplies and personnel to southern Florida and the Bahamas.

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, 35 military divers deployed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Esquimalt, British Columbia, to Pensacola, Florida, to work with their U.S. Navy counterparts to clear navigational hazards, unsecured and sunken vessels and debris, and to check flood-damaged levees.

Volunteers from across Canada augmented the official Canadian response to Katrina, providing search and rescue, assistance to shelters and electrical repair crews. Canada accepted U.S. evacuees.

Canadian ambassador Frank McKenna told the American people “You are our friends and together we are family – you do not suffer alone.”

California Wild Fires (2024-2025)

The Government of Canada coordinated efforts with provinces and territories to identify and prepare all available resources to help the people of California. Canadian agencies continue to work closely with the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC), the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the City of Los Angeles to respond to requests and determine how best to assist in the response and recovery efforts.

In addition to the two CL-415 water bombers sent in August 2024 to Los Angeles, the province of Québec deployed two additional CL-415 water bombers to support firefighting efforts in California. Québec also had 60 Type 1 wildland firefighters available and on standby for deployment.

The province of Alberta sent a trained and experienced crew of 40 Type 1 wildland firefighters and two support staff on 13 January 2025. Additional Type 1 firefighters, Incident Command personnel, water bombers and qualified support staff were prepared to go if requested. The province of British Columbia sent a team of senior technical staff to fill specialized incident command system functions. This is part of a long-standing bilateral relationship with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire) and based on their request for support. British Columbia also sent a crew of Type 1 firefighters, through a NICC and Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) request for support.

Other Canadian provinces kept a watchful eye to assess how they can help California’s response, and if requested, even more resources would be mobilized and deployed if requested by the United States:

• Ontario was prepared to deploy two CL-415 waterbombers from Sault Ste. Marie and Dryden to Abbotsford, British Columbia, to help with fire suppression in California if requested. Forest fire suppression equipment and an Incident Management Team were also placed on standby for deployment within 24-48 hours if requested.
• Saskatchewan offered a wildland fire team and wildfire equipment.
• New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island assembled a 20-person Type 1 firefighter crew ready to deploy if requested, and was prepared to consider additional resources.

Additional federal resources offered include:

• The Canadian Armed Forces on standby with air transport capabilities to deploy provincial/civilian firefighting personnel and equipment.
• The Canadian Coast Guard offered support and explored available resources, such as Incident Command resources that could be deployed to assist the response, if requested.
• CIFFC and Natural Resources Canada worked closely with the NICC and provincial and territorial authorities to continue building on a response by identifying more resources, including aircraft, that could be deployed to support the response.
• Parks Canada offered wildland firefighting resources, including Type 1 wildfire personnel, incident command personnel, structural protection equipment and other firefighting equipment.
• Transport Canada was ready to provide one National Aerial Surveillance Program (NASP) aircraft for fire mapping and hot spot detections and also prepared to deploy a Canadian liaison officer in any fire operational headquarters should the NASP aircraft be deployed.^[2]

Conclusion

To describe the complete spectrum of Canada-U.S. relations adequately would take several large volumes, and would include cross-border law enforcement, the Canada-U.S. Shiprider program and collaborative drug interdiction efforts, to mention only a few.

Canada’s defence policy Strong, Secure, Engaged repeats the nation’s defence policies in force since the 1970s. The cooperative defence of North America in a renewed defence partnership in NORAD and with the United States is second only to defence of Canada. Assistance to the defence of Britain and our other allies now falls within the third priority, “engaged in the world, with the Canadian Armed Forces doing its part in Canada’s contributions to a more stable, peaceful world, including through peace support operations and peacekeeping.”

Politics and diplomacy aside and at its most basic level, the most fundamental difference between the citizens of the United States and Canada is that Canadians do not like being mistaken for Americans. We share the North American continent, a British heritage and many cultural attributes. But most importantly, we share a friendship, now endangered by the policies of the Trump ‘47 administration that threatens tariffs on all Canadian exports to the United States, a relationship that goes back as far as the birth of the Canadian nation. Our previously undefended border was protected by congenial border services officers, our politicians and public servants would speak to each other with the civility of friends, and our military forces have collaborated in training, exercises, personnel exchanges, peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace enforcement operations and war. We did so with a uniquely positive level of interoperability, comfort and trust.

It should be a high priority for the authorities and governments on both sides of the border to restore the relationship to its previous state. But it is also equally important for Canada to take the initiative immediately to restore the Canadian military to its personnel, equipment and weapon levels that were in force when Defence in the Seventies described Canada’s defence policies and our forces numbered 185,000.

[1] “Defence” is the Canadian and British spelling, whereas “Defense” is the U.S. spelling.

[2] Canada, Public Safety. “Update on Canada’s Response to the Wildfires in California.” News releases, January 15, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2025/01/update-on-canadas-response-to-the-wildfires-in-california.html; Press, Brieanna Charlebois and Joe Bongiorno The Canadian. “‘Water’s Away’: How Canadian Helicopters and Waterbombers Are Helping Tame L.A. Fires.” Toronto Star, January 15, 2025. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/waters-away-how-canadian-helicopters-and-waterbombers-are-helping-tame-l-a-fires/article_17d08b98-9aba-52a5-8486-246c0f70bf6f.html; “‘Fingers Crossed’: B.C.’s Coulson Aviation Describes Dangerous Battle against Los Angeles Wildfires.” Accessed February 3, 2025.

References

Associated Press. “CANADIANS HELP REBUILD 2 SCHOOLS IN S. FLORIDA.” Deseret News, September 15, 1992. https://www.deseret.com/1992/9/15/19004682/canadians-help-rebuild-2-schools-in-s-florida/.

Bercuson, David Jay. The Fighting Canadians: Our Regimental History from New France to Afghanistan. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2008.

“California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection | CAL FIRE.” Accessed February 3, 2025. https://www.fire.ca.gov/.

Canada, Public Safety. “Update on Canada’s Response to the Wildfires in California.” News releases, January 15, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2025/01/update-on-canadas-response-to-the-wildfires-in-california.html.

“‘Fingers Crossed’: B.C.’s Coulson Aviation Describes Dangerous Battle against Los Angeles Wildfires.” Accessed February 3, 2025. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/fingers-crossed-bcs-coulson-aviation-describes-dangerous-battle-against-los-angeles-wildfires/ar-BB1rfS8T.

Goodspeed, Lieutenant-Colonel D.J. The Armed Forces of Canada, 1867-1967. Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1968.

“Homepage | CIFFC.” Accessed February 3, 2025. https://ciffc.ca/.

Press, Brieanna Charlebois and Joe Bongiorno The Canadian. “‘Water’s Away’: How Canadian Helicopters and Waterbombers Are Helping Tame L.A. Fires.” Toronto Star, January 15, 2025. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/waters-away-how-canadian-helicopters-and-waterbombers-are-helping-tame-l-a-fires/article_17d08b98-9aba-52a5-8486-246c0f70bf6f.html.

SooToday.com. “Ontario Waterbombers at Ready but Not yet Deployed to L.A. Area Fires,” January 12, 2025. https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/ontario-waterbombers-at-ready-but-not-yet-deployed-to-la-area-fires-10065424.

The Globe and Mail. “Canadian Firefighters to Help Fight California Wildfires as Ottawa, Premiers Pledge Resources.” January 9, 2025. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-firefighters-head-to-help-fight-california-wildfires-as/.

“‘Water’s Away’: How Canadian Helicopters and Waterbombers Are Helping Tame L.A. Fires.” Accessed February 3, 2025. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/public-safety-and-emergencies/fire-and-rescue/water-s-away-how-canadian-helicopters-and-waterbombers-are-helping-tame-l-a-fires/ar-AA1xgxwP.