I couldn't find a post on this one.

Hurricane Victims Abandoned by Canada

I saw this on the evening news the other day. The US sent down deligates to help with getting Americans back to the US in this time of crisis. A spokesman for Canadian Foreign Affairs simply said "we told them not to go" and implied that they were pretty much on their own. The Canadian Embassy in Mexico told them to wait out the storm and they never returned phone calls as promised. After that segment, there was a spot on all the monetary aid and the military DART team that is in to Pakistan to help with the earthquake.

Anyone else find this slightly unsettling???

First, let me clear this up once and for all. The Canadian DART team is an attachment of the Canadian Military. Due to this, the DART team CANNOT enter a country until that country specifically asks Canada for intervention/immediate aid. It would be like say for example, if during the last referendum the US just sent in Police/Military members to protect American interests. When dealing with sovereign nations you have to remember just that.... THEY ARE SOVEREIGN! You cannot just send militaries into them. I cannot stand it when Canadians immediatley blame the Forces/Government for inaction when they haven't bothered to do any research for themselves.

The other point however, is valid. Canadian Forgien Affairs should have done something (NOT DART) for the Canadians stuck there.

If I had booked a trip to Mexico and seen the forcast I would have cancelled. The hurricane hung around for days, giving people who were already there plenty of time to leave.
They took a chance and are now whining about the lack of action from Canada.

Sorry, Canadian Forgien Affairs only deals with France & Quebec, and little bits of Hong Kong, when there's a good bribe in it for them.

What did they say??? over 30,000 killed in Pakistan, and you're comparing this with some Canadians on "holidays" in Mexico???

I wasn't comparing the two - obviously the Pakistan quake was much more sevre. The only angle I couldn't wrap my mind around was how we'll send an extraordinary amount of resources to aid other non-Canadians (which I have no problem with whatsoever), but we won't even bat an eye at Candians stranded in another devastated country.

They were in an intl. airport with the only hardship that was bessetting them is that they had to wait for a flight.

I'll keep it in mind that if I miss the connection in Trudeau airport to hartford flying back home this winter, that the state department "abandoned" me, in cramped conditions facing drunken pilots and plastered businessmen, sleeping in uncomfortable seats.

The people merely needed to wait for a flight... Thats it, they presumably had access to bathrooms as well as (over priced) food and probably even a duty free shop which could help them pass the time. If I was a delegate I would not care less about these people since quite frankly, there are more important issues than a few whiny tourists. Such as oh, the people who didn't have a home anymore?

I'm curious if the people even bothered to register with FAC, so the canadian govt. even knew where these people were...

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister released a VERY similar statement to that one too apparently...

Those would be the idiots that failed to listen to ALL of the advance warning to evacuate and ignored all of the pre-hurricane flights that Air Canada and the Canadian government arranged to bring them home before the hurrican hit.

I'm sorry but their ignorance isn't worthy of casting blame on the Canadian government.

I would also be correct in saying then that these same people were on a vaction and probably like many of us avoided all notion of time and never went near a TV.