Canadian general serving with U.S. Army would not be subject to potential Minnesota deployment

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A Canadian officer who is second-in-command of the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division would not be subject to Donald Trump’s order for possible deployment to Minnesota to quell protests over the U.S. President’s immigration crackdown, National Defence says.

Reuters and other U.S. media reported this week that the President has given “prepare-to-deploy” orders for Minnesota to two infantry battalions in the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska and specializes in Arctic conditions.

The U.S. Army placed about 1,500 active-duty units in Alaska to prepare for possible deployment in case violence escalates in Minnesota. The midwestern state has seen large protests against Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown and the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good, an American shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent this month.

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The second-in-command of the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division is Canadian career officer Brigadier-General Robert McBride. He is the deputy commanding general of operations for the division, a post that has been filled by a Canadian since 2014 as part of Canada-U.S. military co-operation.

This has led to speculation that a Canadian military officer could be involved in suppressing protests if Mr. Trump actually orders a deployment to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

But National Defence spokesperson Kened Sadiku told The Globe and Mail that Brig.-Gen. McBride would not be subject to the President’s orders.

“There are currently no active-duty members involved in operations in Minnesota, nor would they be allowed to be without approval by the Government of Canada. At this time, no such request has been made.”

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He noted that Brig.-Gen. McBride is part of a Canadian Armed Forces exchange program that requires the recommendation of the Chief of the Defence Staff and authorization from the Minister of Defence.

Retired Major-General Denis Thompson said National Defence is not likely to give approval for a Canadian military officer to engage in dealing with domestic protests in the United States or any other country.

“It is a pretty far stretch that any Canadian government would approve the deployment of an exchange officer on a domestic operation,” he said. “For years, we had officers and [non-commissioned officers] in the British Army and none of them – zero – went to Northern Ireland.”

Brig.-Gen. McBride has completed five deployments, which include Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. He has been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for leading his team during combat and counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and the Chief of Defence Staff Commendation for his time with Joint Task Force-Iraq. Most recently he was appointed to the Order of Military Merit.

The potential deployment of troops to Minnesota comes after the Pentagon dispatched about 700 Marines to Los Angeles in the summer to handle protests over excessive force used by ICE agents. The Marines’ activities were limited to guarding federal properties in the greater Los Angeles area.

Last week, Mr. Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used law to allow the U.S. military to be deployed for law enforcement purposes inside the United States.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on Sunday that any military deployment would exacerbate tensions in Minnesota’s largest city, where the Trump administration has already sent 3,000 immigration and U.S. Border Patrol officers to deal with largely peaceful protests.

With a report from Reuters