Impact of Wearing the Canadian Uniform

We would get briefings about the majority of the population being muslim, for example, and the different attitudes and the way they carried on their business and stuff especially different variations from what we might be used to. They helped provide us that kind of insight so that when we did hit the ground it was more a sense of awe for just how closely the training we were being provided matched the reality to the situation. It was excellent. The most clear impact of wearing this uniform came with the children. There was no hesitation about coming forward to us to look for some candy or something of that nature and likewise, the candy was already being held out to them and stuff like that. Other items for school, for example, we would help to provide as best we could when we went around on our patrols and stuff. There was no apprehension or animosity. The community welcomed us as much as any other vehicle that would have been going down the road or any other passerby. I can’t say there was any indifference but they seemed quite glad that we were there. In that respect, the time that I had gone there was near the end of the tours for the CF in Bosnia so a lot of work had already been done in terms of building up that kind of relationship and that kind of stability and we were largely there just to ensure that the police were getting up to speed and that the security situation had reached a certain acceptable level that people would be safe and we hardly encountered anything that would contradict that. So I can’t say largely riding on the laurels of other people’s work but we certainly tried to maintain what had been done already and I believe it was largely, if not completely, successful.