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Vance noted it was important to ensure members of the Canadian Forces “do not become an unwitting vector that accelerates the disease in Canada.”

Navy Lt. Blake Patterson, spokesman for the Royal Military College, said cadets are not permitted to leave the campus, nor are they permitted to have visitors, receive deliveries or attend any activities off-campus. “As part of our plan to ensure adequate support to the 1100 (cadets) who are now restricted to the peninsula, the cadet mess at RMC was open on Friday night but there was no St. Patrick’s Day party and numbers at no time exceeded 250,” Patterson noted in an email. “The mess closed as scheduled at 1 a.m.”

Winger said there has been a great deal of confusion as no one has defined what critical tasks are.

Bartenders, gym instructors and cashiers who work at various locations on bases have all been told to come to work. “It is hard to imagine how this work can be considered conducting a critical task,” Winger added.

Many such staff are not employees of DND but of a separate agency known as the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services or CFMWS. That agency employs around 4,000.

“Our objective is to continue to support Base/Wing Command teams and CAF community members as they deal with their particular realities,” noted an email sent by Capt. Kathleen Soucy of Military Personnel Command. “We are focused on delivering essential services to the CAF community.”

“In response to COVID-19, CFMWS has adopted a position in support of the Chief of Defence Staff’s directive,” the email added. “CFMWS will maintain core/essential services in support of the Canadian Armed Forces to serve where needed.”