Canada's Joint Task Force Two Ca na da's
Joint Task Force-Two

In 1993 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) SERT (Special Emergency Response Team) was disbanded, reportedly due to problems the officers had resolving the neccesity to kill verses their desire to protect and save lives. This unit had been Canada's premier Counter-Terrorist unit. After their dissolution, the Canadian Armed Forces created a highly secretive unit (in April of 1993) reportedly called Joint Task Force Two. JTF-2 is Canada's new CT unit.

JTF-2 is so secretive that it's size, location, and training regiment aren't known. But details have slowly began to appear. It is guessed that their strength is around 200-250 operators. Each member is a volunteer from one of the three services in the Canadian military; creating a unit that is self-sufficient and able to deploy itself and act with a minimum of dependency on other units. JTF-2 is commandeered by a Lt. Colonel of one of the branches.

Reports have surfaced recently that JTF-2 was deployed to Bosnia in response to Canadian troops being taken hostage by Serb forces (in early 1995). The Canadian military would not comment on these reports, but the Ottowa Citizen reported that they were not used.

$20 million in start-up costs were earmarked for the unit the first two years of their existence. Included in this were funds for the purchase of land and equipment JTF-2 bought from the RCMP. My guess (I must emphasize this guess is made after reading two pages in one book and two newspaper articles concerning the RCMP/ERT and JTF-2; not very good qualifications) is that this equipment was weapons and CT equipment used by the ERT. As such, I believe it is reasonable to expect that JTF-2 is using HK MP5s and 9mm Browning Hi-Powers .


Read this articles on JTF-2 HERE
Sources:
"The Illustrated guide to the World's Top Counter-Terrorist Forces" Samuel M. Katz ISBN 962-361-602-3
"Anti-Terrorism unit efficient, but low-profile" The Chronicle-Herald, 05/04/95