"Meanwhile, the Canadian army has begun assembling hundreds of soldiers and military equipment at CFB Trenton in the event that additional soldiers are required to keep the peace and assist rescue efforts in Port-au-Prince, sources say.

While the orders have not come down from the government to deploy, a "battle-group-plus" of up to 800 soldiers from CFB Valcartier in Quebec are on standby in Trenton.

The Valcartier-based force comes from the [mostly] francophone Royal 22nd Regiment, known as the Van Doos, and would be a logical choice to send to the devastated French-speaking Caribbean nation."



As an aside, the term 'van doos' comes from a mispronunciation of the French "vingt-deux" which means 22.