PM commits Canada to peacekeeping

Canada offers helicopters, planes, trainers to UN, but where and how they will be deployed isn’t known

VANCOUVER — Canada inched closer to a muchanticipated return to peacekeeping on Wednesday as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered the UN badly needed soldiers, equipment and a fresh feminist perspective on peace missions.

But while UN officials were effusive in their praise for Canada’s commitments and leadership, two key questions remained: When and where will Canadian peacekeepers be deployed?

Trudeau unveiled the package of measures and commitments during an address to hundreds of foreign dignitaries and military officials on the second day of a major peacekeeping summit hosted by Canada.

The package represented Canada’s most tangible step back into peacekeeping since the Liberals promised last year to provide up to 600 troops and 150 police officers to the UN.

Canada is specifically offering up to six helicopters and two transport aircraft, plus their associated pilots and support personnel, as well as a 200-strong quick reaction force to the UN.

It has also pledged $21 million to help double the number of women deployed on peacekeeping operations around the world, which Trudeau emphasized as critical to bringing peace and stability to conflictridden areas.

“Women bring a unique and valuable perspective to conflict resolution,” Trudeau said.

“They look beyond the interests of warring parties, bring the wider community to the table and focus on root causes. Including women and girls in peace operations is a smart, practical pathway to lasting peace.”

Canada is also planning to make dozens of trainers available to the UN and other countries to help professionalize militaries from developing countries that are often involved in peacekeeping.

Some of those trainers will be deployed to UN centres in Africa, such as Kenya, Ghana and Uganda. But officials say up to 50 could also be sent to other countries and may even deploy on missions with their students.

“Six hundred Canadian Armed Forces personnel is significant for Canada as a commitment, but let’s remember that there are close to 100,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world,” Trudeau said.

“So we have to focus on how Canada can best help. What we will do is step up and make the contributions we are uniquely able to provide.”

The government’s plan was warmly welcomed by the UN’s top peacekeeping official, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who asserted that the values that guide peacekeeping are the same espoused by “this great nation of Canada.”

“And with Canada on our side, we feel stronger,” Lacroix said. “We feel more empowered to confront the many challenges that peacekeeping is facing.”

Yet when it came to timelines and specific locations, especially for the deployment of Canadian troops and military equipment, Trudeau remained vague.

That is because Canada has offered them without dictating when and where they must be used, which is what the UN has asked countries to start doing so it has flexibility in filling critical gaps in different missions.

Canada is looking at basing a transport plane in Entebbe, Uganda, that will help ferry UN personnel, equipment and supplies for seven different peacekeeping missions.

“They are exactly consistent with the critical needs that we have in terms of capability, but also the flexibility in which these offers have been made,” Lacroix said of Canada’s pledges.

But government officials told reporters on background that Canada and the UN have only just started what could be six to nine months of discussions about when and where any of those capabilities will be deployed.