OTTAWA - The list of more than 1,400 Canadians missing in Haiti is a roll of anguish for families across the country -- an anguish worsened by two more deaths confirmed late Friday.
It gives Nerlande Jules only the faintest of hopes. Her partner, Jean Lissade is on the list, and she knows he's still alive, the Montreal woman says.
But through networking and pulling together bits and pieces of information, she's also been able to figure out that he's living in the street, has no belongings or identification, and nothing to eat or drink.
"We know he is alive, but he is dying of hunger."
Jules believes she knows more about Haitian conditions, sitting in her Montreal home, than Lissade does in the earthquake-ravaged streets of Port-au-Prince. But she can't find a way to tell him that he should somehow find a way to get to the Canadian embassy, or walk to his cousin's house in a nearby town, where he can find food.
The official Canadian death toll from the quake increased from four to six late Friday. Guillaume Siemienski, an employee working with the Canadian International Development Agency, and Helene Rivard, a CIDA consultant, were confirmed dead by the Prime Minister's Office.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement extending his condolences to the friends and families of the two individuals.
"Their deaths are a reminder of the sacrifice Canadian men and women like Siemienski and Rivard are willing to make in order to bring Canadian generosity and aid to Haiti and the world," he said.
"On behalf of all Canadians, Laureen and I would like to offer their families and friends our profound sympathies. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time."
Many Canadians remain unaccounted for despite ramped-up efforts to dig through rubble and follow up on tips from anxious families back home, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told a briefing Friday.
"It doesn't mean, obviously, that these people are trapped in one way or another in the debris," he said. "It just means that we have not yet been able to contact them."
Ottawa is working with information garnered from 16,400 phone calls to its operations room at the Department of Foreign Affairs in order to figure out who is missing and try to find them. It's also relying on a list of Canadians who formally registered with the embassy in Haiti, where as many as 50,000 people are feared dead in the aftermath of Tuesday's powerful quake.
And Ottawa has beefed up consular staff in both Port-au-Prince and nearby Santo Domingo to help in the effort to find the missing, Cannon added.
Emmanuel Hilaire is taking his father off the missing-persons list. After days of desperate searching, fruitless phone calls and combing the Internet, he received a text message at 5 a.m. Friday from the 78 year old.
"He told me everything was OK," the Ottawa man said.
The military has already flown 272 Canadians home, while 50 others were still being sheltered at the Canadian embassy in Haiti, with 50 more housed elsewhere.
While consular staff focused on the effort to help Canadians, Canada's role in the broader relief operation was growing. The military has flown in members of its disaster relief team (DART), tons of humanitarian supplies, and RCMP and military police officers.
Four flights arrived Friday and the plan is to send two huge C-17 transports every day, with smaller C-130 Hercules aircraft making three flights every two days.
Two Canadian warships, HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax are expected to arrive early next week with additional supplies and personnel.
"The primary goal right now, in addition to delivering food and water, is assisting in the search for those buried under the rubble," said Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
France Gosselin is looking to Canadian troops to locate her father under the piles of concrete that used to be the classy Montana Hotel. Her 78-year-old father, Roger Gosselin from St-Sulpice, QC., was last heard of going into the lobby of the hotel minutes before the quake.
"We keep hoping," she said.
The army has also put 800 troops on standby for a possible peacekeeping and reconstruction mission to Haiti. The Conservative government had yet to give the green light to the mission Friday, but defence sources said the order to move could come as early as Saturday.
The U.S. has committed 10,000 troops to security operations in Haiti
Canada is only one of many countries involved in the rescue effort, and logistics are proving to be a challenge, especially with so much communications equipment destroyed in the quake.
The Quebec government fell victim to faulty information, telling the public on Thursday that ex-federal MP Serge Marcil had been found alive in Haiti, only to have to backtrack Friday.
Ottawa is co-ordinating its rescue work closely with United Nations officials in New York and Haiti, and is also seeking some leadership from the Haitian government. Brazil is taking a key role in policing, and the United States is working on air-traffic control and telecommunications.
But many logistical decisions are taken "step by step" by people on the ground, Cannon said.
As for money, Ottawa is trying to take a lead in organizing the international aid effort. The aim is to set up a conference of major international donors in order to ensure the hundreds of millions of dollars pouring forth are focused on the long-term development needs of the impoverished country, Cannon said.
Social media like Twitter and Facebook as well as the Internet are playing a significant role in the speedy, massive outpouring of pledges and donations from Canadians, aid agencies said Friday.
The Canadian Red Cross reported commitments of $15.8 million by late Friday afternoon.
The federal government is matching donations made to registered charitable groups for the Haitian disaster up to a maximum of $50 million.
