THEY JUST DON’T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO MAKE A COMMITMENT

With so little information on offer, the Liberals changed their messaging. The government, Trudeau and Sajjan would repeatedly say, wanted to gather more information and consult with allies before making any decisions.

Then, in the fall of 2016, a series of strange twists: Vance told the Daily Gleaner newspaper in Fredericton, N.B., that “there is no such thing as an African mission.”

“It’s been over-reported based on peoples’ own assessments in the media,” he said, ignoring his own “very soon in Africa” statement from July.

Sajjan then confirmed to the Toronto Star that Canada had committed to an African mission for a three-year period. A day later, Sajjan’s office issued a statement that the minister “got a little bit ahead” of the government. “Three years is part of the suite of options that will be considered, but this hasn’t gone to Cabinet yet for a decision,” Sajjan’s office said in an email. That decision, the Liberals said, would come by December 2016.

Almost a year past that deadline, the government has still announced nothing.

During that time, Dorn and other military sources say, Canada rejected a concerted lobbying effort by the Netherlands to have Royal Canadian Air Force Chinooks assigned to the Mali mission, on which the Dutch had deployed four attack helicopters and three of their own Chinooks before the wear and tear of the desert environment on the aircraft — and the strain on Dutch air force crews from an almost three-year mission — forced them to take a break.

The UN was also openly pushing Canada to take on that commitment. In November 2016, Atul Khare, the UN’s undersecretary general for the department of field support, used the Halifax International Security Forum summit in Nova Scotia to highlight the critical need for transport helicopters for the Mali operation. Canada was also being courted to provide a commanding officer to lead the mission, but with the Liberals unable to make a decision, the UN had to look elsewhere to fill the post.

The Canadian government sent three fact-finding teams to Mali to examine the situation, but ultimately neither committed to the mission nor ruled it out completely.

Former Canadian diplomat Peggy Mason says she believes the Liberal government made its peacekeeping election promise without taking into consideration the potential for casualties. When the realization sunk in that Canadians could be killed on such operations, the Liberals hit the pause button, says Mason, president of the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute.

Dorn believes there were a number of factors at play. While there was concern among the Canadian Forces about potential casualties in a Mali mission in particular, Dorn also believes the delay is linked to the Liberal government’s broader agenda.

Climate change, Indigenous issues, Syrian refugees and economic initiatives have dominated much of cabinet’s agenda for the first two years of this government’s mandate. Looming over it all has been the question of how to deal with mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump, a challenge that has captured more of the Liberals’ attention government-wide than perhaps any single file.

“And then you have a defence minister who is not assertive,” adds Dorn. “He’s a very nice guy who is trying to make a difference but he doesn’t have the seniority so he just couldn’t push issues onto the cabinet agenda.”

As the Vancouver conference approaches, sources say, the Liberal government has started to scramble on coming up with a substantial pledge it can announce.

One option now being considered is to have the Canadian Forces provide helicopter support for the UN mission in Haiti. Another is to send six of the Chinooks from Garrison Petawawa near Ottawa to Mali, where they could be used to transport UN troops, keeping the soldiers off the roads where they are targets for ambush or improvised explosive devices.

A return to Mali would be somewhat ironic for Canada. Mali had been considered stable until early 2012 when tribesmen seeking an independent country combined forces with Islamic militants to take control of the northern half of the country. The insurgents had received a major boost when NATO forces — including those from Canada — helped overthrow Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The rebels outfitted themselves with weapons stolen from Libyan government military bases and were able to seize much of the country before being pushed back.

Dorn says the RCAF Chinooks sitting at Petawawa would be a welcome addition to any UN operation. Last year at the UN peacekeeping conference in London, Sajjan told delegates of Canada’s commitment to provide up to 600 soldiers and 150 police for missions. Dorn says with the Vancouver conference to begin shortly, the Liberal government is under intense pressure to make good on its promises.

“This is a pledging conference, so how can they not?” Dorn points out. “They are the host. They made a pledge at the last conference to provide troops and they haven’t kept it. That’s pretty embarrassing.”