Peter Moon - Canadian Rangers

The Canadian Rangers have completed their first full week of support for the delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations in Northern Ontario.

The vaccines are being delivered and administered in 32 remote First Nations across the province’s Far North by Ornge, Ontario’s provider of air ambulance and critical care transport services. The Rangers, who are part-time army reservists living in their communities, provided the medical teams with support in the delivery of the program.

The Covid-19 crisis of 2020 has been a major challenge for the Canadian Rangers of Northern Ontario but it has not prevented them from serving their communities, according to their commanding officer.

“We have not ceased in any way from performing our duties and completing our tasks,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Shane McArthur, the Canadian Army officer who commands the 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group (3CRPG), which has almost 600 Rangers in 29 First Nations across the Far North of Ontario.

Canadian Rangers rescued two stranded teenaged hunters and found an escaped suicidal patient in two successful search missions in three days in August.

The boys, aged 14 and 15, got their all-terrain vehicles stuck in the challenging swampy terrain 100 kilometers north of Fort Severn and sent a text message to one of their fathers asking for help. Fort Severn, Ontario’s most northerly community, is a small Cree settlement on Hudson Bay, 1,500 kilometers north of Toronto.

More than 100 Canadian Rangers have been placed on active duty in 30 First Nations across the Far North of Ontario as part of the Canadian Armed Forces initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another 45 Rangers are ready to go on active duty if they are needed and others are expected to volunteer if required.

Two groups of Canadian Rangers have completed an intensive test of their skills in a military exercise designed to test their mobility on the land and challenge their traditional abilities.

“Exercise Mobile Ranger was an exercise that focused on mobility both overland and by air, as well as on winter survival skills for the Rangers,” said Major Charles Ohlke, the Canadian Army officer commanding the Rangers in Northern Ontario. “Any opportunity to practice a skill results in improvement. This was a great exercise with a tremendous effort by all the Rangers involved.”