Liberals haven’t met UN campaign pledge

Party still won’t say which peacekeeping missions will receive personnel, equipment

OTTAWA— Months after Canada pledged military personnel and equipment to deploy on United Nations peace missions, the federal government appears no closer to deciding how it will deliver on those commitments.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Thursday that planning continues and offered no timeline when the military will actually deploy on United Nations operations.

“We have continued on with the planning and the assessments . . . our military leadership is moving ahead, Global Affairs is also continuing their work,” Sajjan said. “When we have more, we will make the decisions,” he said Thursday in a teleconference from Brussels, where he had taken part in a meeting of NATO defence ministers.

The Liberals pledged in the 2015 election to “recommit” to UN peace operations.

But it’s been a long road making good on that promise. The government originally committed 600 troops and 150 police officers to peace missions in August 2016 but had no plan where to send them.

Then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used a ministerial conference in Vancouver last November to announce that Canada was making socalled “smart pledges” to the United Nations to respond to pressing needs.

Trudeau promised a quick reaction force of about 200 troops and accompanying equipment.

As well, Canada committed an aviation task force of armed helicopters, and transport aircraft to help the UN move troops, equipment and supplies to support missions.

And he committed about 50 or so military, police and civilian trainers to train other UN troop-contributing countries in how to be more effective in conflict zones, for example in field medical aid or counter-IED operations.

The commitment was short of the original pledge. And the government had no specifics where the troops and equipment might be deployed, with the exception of C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, which would be dispatched to Entebbe, Uganda.

Sajjan said planning for that specific deployment is going well. “We should have more to say about that shortly.”

NDP MP Hélène Laverdière (Laurier-Ste-Marie) expressed “utter frustration” at what she called the Liberals’ broken promise to live up to its peacekeeping commitment.

“Canada is supposed to be back? Back where? We’re still waiting,” Laverdière, a former Canadian foreign service officer, said Wednesday.

Canada had just 40 peacekeepers deployed abroad at the end of January, according to the UN.

Sajjan had little more to say about the future of Canada’s military operations in Iraq, another deployment where the federal government continues to weigh its options.

That mission, which currently involves some 650 personnel deployed in Kuwait and Iraq, includes a medical facility in Erbil, up to four Griffon helicopters, two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, a CC-150 Polaris air-to-air refueller and up to 200 special operations forces soldiers who advise and assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

However, Canada suspended the training mission by special forces operations last October after rising tensions and clashes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

Sajjan, who was in Rome earlier in the week for a meeting of allies involved in the counter-Daesh mission, said the situation in Iraq has “changed drastically.”

“And for good reason, the significant defeat of Daesh in the region . . . now this is about assessing what the needs are,” Sajjan said.

At the NATO meeting, members of the military alliance decided to establish a training mission in Iraq. But Sajjan offered no hints what Canada might contribute to this role, on top of the personnel already serving in the region.

“Now the planning will begin for the formal portion of this. Once plan- ning is completed, it will give us a much better perspective of the contribution we can make,” Sajjan said.

He said Canada has already started on its contribution, extending a mission by Canadian military explosives experts in Iraq to help the country clean up the dangerous remnants of the battle against Daesh.

Following the discussions and briefings he got in Rome, Sajjan said he would now be talking with Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland about next steps.

“We’ll come up with the appropriate decisions so that we can remain as a responsible coalition partner,” Sajjan said.

Sajjan used his Brussels stop to announce that Canada would be rejoining the NATO’s airborne warning and control system. The program uses a fleet of 16 E-3A aircraft — modified Boeing 707s with a large radar dome on top — for long-range surveillance.

Sajjan said the previous Conservative government “needlessly” withdrew Canada from the program. He said the AWACS program will cost between $17 million and $20 million a year.

“Once planning is completed, it will give us a much better perspective of the contribution we can make.” HARJIT SAJJAN DEFENCE MINISTER