Drs Forestier and Pedlar will present the findings of Exercise Trillium Cura (ETC).  In 2024, ETC was a tabletop simulation of how the health system in Ontario, along with a wide range of partners, would cope with the inflow of casualties from a prolonged conventional war while maintaining care for civilians. The result of six months of planning and development by a civilian-military team, Trillium Cura brought together 45 in-person participants and 27 observers from across the country using wargame techniques to simulate the flow of a wide-range of wounded into Ontario while maintaining current clinical volumes. 

After two days, ETC demonstrated a wide range of problems along with some successes. During the exercise, participants underscored that lessons learned from COVID-19 were not enough to respond to the unique challenges presented by a sustained mass casualty event. Despite this, key problems or challenges were predictable: the importance civilian military health system collaboration, clear leadership, and the need for critical and human resources. Perhaps most importantly, the exercise surfaced several activities we could rapidly undertake now to be better prepared.

Our public health and health systems will continue to face crises and must withstand the broad challenges we face, whether external like the threat in ETC or internal like wildfires or floods that breach city limits. 

View the Powerpoint Presentation

Bios:

Brigadier General (BGen) Forestier currently serves as Director General Clinical Services in the Canadian Armed Forces. Prior to this position, she was Director Health Services Strategic Concepts Canadian Forces Health Services. BGen Forestier enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 2003 as a direct entry medical officer after working as a rural family physician in southern Alberta. She was first posted to 1 Field Ambulance and in 2006 to the Canadian Special Operations Regiment as a Medical Officer.

She has been employed in a number of medical advisory and medical staff positions including Command Surgeon for the Canadian Special Operations Command, senior Staff Officer for Medical Policy and Standards, Regional Surgeon for Joint Task Force Atlantic in Halifax, and Canadian Joint Operations Command Surgeon.

She served as the Director of Mental Health (2017-2019), as the Director of Health Services Operations (2020- 2022), and then as Director Health Services Strategic Concepts. Her deployment experience includes a tour in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2005/06 as part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team during Op ARCHER, and in March 2015 she served as the Task Force Commander for Op SIRONA in Sierra Leone, the Canadian Armed Forces contribution to the fight against the Ebola Virus in West Africa.

BGen Forestier completed a Family Medicine Residency at the University of Calgary in 1998, earned the Certificate of Special Competence Emergency Medicine (CCFP (EM)), and is a graduate of the Canadian Forces College National Security Program (2020).

Dr. David Pedlar is a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queens University and Senior Scientist at the University of Ottawa, Institute for Mental Health Research at the Royal Hospital. He is a distinguished researcher and thought leader with an impressive track record advancing veteran, military and family health research and policy in Canada and internationally. He is a two-time Fulbright Canada recipient, as scholar and research chair. He has played a pivotal role in shaping veteran health research in Canada, securing major funding, and leading multiple international collaborations.

Since retiring as the Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Heath Research (2017-2024), he continues to serve as their Strategic Research Advisor.  He has advised governments and institutions worldwide, including serving as the Strategic Research Advisor to scientific advisory boards and international health systems working groups. His leadership in veteran mental health research extends globally, with key roles in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and beyond.

Kris's current research examines the strategic culture of the Government of Canada and its impact on our ability to mount a credible whole-of-government response to prevailing national security threats. Kris proposes a model to build culture through common executive development, thereby overcoming the fragmented and competitive nature of interdepartmental policies and advice to deliver a unified national security strategy that ultimately guides subordinate foreign, defence and security policies. 

Bio:

Colonel Kris Purdy enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 2000, serving as a Military Police Officer before transferring to the Intelligence Branch in 2004.

He has held various staff and command positions at all levels with the majority of his service spent within the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, Canadian Forces Intelligence Group, and Canadian Joint Operations Command.

Col Purdy has served internationally in Afghanistan, Jordan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most recently, he deployed on Operation CROCODILE as the Canadian Task Force Commander and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Mary’s University, a Master of Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada and is a graduate of the Canadian Forces College Joint Command and Staff Program. He was named to the Order of Military Merit in 2018 and has been awarded Chief of Defence Staff and Vice Chief of Defence Staff Commendations.

Colonel Purdy is currently a Visiting Defence Fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University, where he is conducting research on Canada’s strategic culture and professional development of national security executives.

The CIDP at Queen's University presents "Discussion on Defence". These talks are with the current CIDP VDFs to engage undergrad students. Come join us for an engaging discussion on AI in the CAF and DND at Robert Sutherland Hall 334, Queen's University.

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A US Military member’s review and analysis of the Canadian Armed Forces’ readiness as a member of NATO and closest ally to the USA. LTC Drew Lanier will present his findings of CAF readiness from post-WWII to current day; identify objective components that have contributed to a decrease in readiness; review recent initiatives that the CAF has pursued; and he will make some recommendations for improving personnel strengths and the CAF’s ability to respond to a threat to NATO allies.

*a light lunch will be provided, registration is free and required.

*please note that the online webinar portion of this event has been cancelled, we apologize for the inconvenience. We hope you can join us in-person for this event.

 Bio:

LTC PATRICK ANDREW (DREW) LANIER is the United States Army Visiting Defense Fellow to the Centre for International and Defence Policy, Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario. Drew has 21 years of service with the United States Armed Forces as a Senior Human Resources Officer. Drew has operational deployments to Tal Afar and Rabiah, Iraq focusing on security and stability operations; and Buchanan, Liberia to stop the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease.

Drew has served in various command and staff positions. He is a United States Army Command and General Staff College graduate. Drew received a Master’s Degree in Management from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, and received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. He has earned multiple awards to include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, and Army Commendation Medal.

This IDP seminar will examine the role of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA, 1943-47) in providing emergency humanitarian aid to displaced persons and refugees in the aftermath of the Second World War. It will trace the evolution of humanitarian policy and explore how early international relief efforts paved the way for modern human rights, culminating in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The talk will also consider the contemporary relevance of these developments, focusing on how past humanitarian efforts continue to shape current policies and practices toward refugees and asylum seekers in Canada and the United States.

Bio:

Dr. Katherine Rossy is Assistant Professor of International History at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, and Deputy Director of Research at the CIDP. She completed her PhD in History from Queen Mary University of London in 2018, where she held a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Doctoral Scholarship before becoming a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Carleton University from 2019-2022. Dr. Rossy’s expertise lies in the Second World War and early Cold War eras, particularly the history of humanitarianism, human rights, and the laws of armed conflict. She is currently working on a monograph about the evolution of United Nations emergency humanitarianism in all theatres of conflict during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath (1943-48). She is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Alice Wilson Award from the Royal Society of Canada (2019) and the Young Alumna of the Year Award from Concordia University (2020).

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This student event is sponsored by the CIDP's VDF Undergraduate Mentorship Program. *A light meal will be offered for those who register for the event.