Why this Canadian is deputy commanding general of U.S. troops in Alaska that could be sent to Minneapolis

Reports that U.S. troops based in Alaska are being readied for deployment to the streets of Minneapolis amid a turbulent immigration crackdown there could put a Canadian officer in a sticky situation. Brig. Gen. Robert McBride is those soldiers’ deputy commanding officer.

McBride was seconded to the U.S. 11th Airborne Division in 2023, replacing another Canadian, Brig. Gen. Louis Lapointe, as deputy commanding general of operations.

They are part of a longstanding program of officer exchanges between Canadian, U.S. and other NATO countries’ armed forces, situations that have created conundrums for the Canadians in the past.

This time it centres around a threat by President Donald Trump to invoke America’s Insurrection Act in Minnesota, the site of widespread protests over Trump’s drive to deport undocumented immigrants, especially after immigration officers shot dead an American woman in her car. Implementing the Act would give him wide powers to respond to unrest in Minnesota.

U.S. media including ABC News and the Associated Press have quoted unnamed military sources as saying that the 11th Airborne has been told to prepare 1,500 troops for possible deployment to the state.

Critics have said that invoking the Insurrection Act and dispatching active-duty troops — as opposed to part-time National Guard soldiers — to the city would be a needless and almost unprecedented escalation of tensions there.

But could a Canadian officer be stuck in the middle of such an historic American controversy?

Probably not, says retired Gen. Wayne Eyre, who was Canada’s chief of defence staff until 2024, and actually assigned McBride to the U.S. unit. In fact, exchange officers must get Canadian approval — called a national authority to deploy — before departing on any operation with their American unit. The chief of defence staff makes a recommendation and the defence minister signs off, or not, as the ultimate arbiter, said Eyre.

“I doubt the U.S. would even ask for a Canadian exchange officer to deploy on such a task, and even less likely it would be approved,” he said.

While Eyre said he dealt with many exchange-officer issues in the job, the most controversial arose in 2003 when the U.S. invaded Iraq. Though Canada declined to take part in the attack, a handful of Canadian soldiers deployed with their American units. That authority was later rescinded, though.

In 1982, a Canadian exchange officer with the British Parachute Regiment was refused authority to join the Falklands War, as was his U.S. colleague, said Eyre.

He actually found himself in a unique — and little-known — position while on an exchange with the Americans a decade ago. He was deputy commanding general for operations with the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps when it was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014, just as the Canadian mission in the country was coming to a close.

“The government thankfully authorized my deployment, and ironically my U.S. boss put me in command of the NATO Training Mission — Afghanistan — one of the largest commands there, surprising some of our NATO partners as Canada had officially ceased its mission.”

• Pentagon tells 1,500 soldiers stationed in Alaska to prep for possible Minnesota deployment
• J.D. Tuccille: It matters less whether the ICE shooting was justified, it was inevitable

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