PM makes bold but vague promises at Vancouver peacekeeping summit
VANCOUVER — Canada inched closer to a much-anticipated 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 conflict-ridden 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.”
Academy Award-winning actor Angelina Jolie delivered a keynote address on preventing and better addressing sexual violence in armed conflict.
After long ignoring the issue of sexual violence in war, the international community has in recent years stepped up its efforts to end rape and other sexual crimes in conflict zones and to hold perpetrators to account.
But the UN has also struggled with revelations that peacekeepers themselves have either sexually abused or exploited the very people they were meant to protect in a number of countries.
Jolie, a special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, listed the many promises, laws and resolutions that have failed to eliminate sexual violence from war.
She blasted the UN’s failure to increase the number of female peacekeepers deployed on missions, and its efforts to stop peacekeepers from sexually abusing vulnerable populations.
“It has been 21 years since the UN first promised to address sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers and to increase the number of women deployed in operations,” she said. “Yet the exploitation of defenceless civilians still takes place. And still less than four per cent of all peacekeepers are women.”
Canada is also planning to make dozens of trainers available to the UN and other countries to help professionalize militaries from developing countries 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 be sent to other countries and might 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.”
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
VANCOUVER — Two people protesting against federal approval of the expansion of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline say they were questioned by police Wednesday after they interrupted a news conference by the prime minister.
Hayley Zacks, 20, and Jake Hubley, 24, stood with signs denouncing the pipeline before telling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau he can’t fulfil his climate-action promises if projects such as Trans Mountain expansion are approved.
When the Trans Mountain expansion was approved, they were disappointed, Zacks said.
She said they received passes to the news conference by claiming they were freelance journalists.
Zacks said they were escorted out of the news conference by the prime minister’s RCMP security team, handcuffed by Vancouver police officers and taken to a nearby station.
After being questioned by police, the two were released.
The $6.8-billion pipeline expansion project between Edmonton and Burnaby would nearly triple the line’s capacity and increase tanker traffic sevenfold along British Columbia’s southern coast.