Force alone won’t save Mali, MPS told

Defence, Foreign Affairs brass won’t say why Canada isn’t helping fund UN action

Foreign Affairs and Defence officials defended Canada’s role in Mali and the surrounding region Thursday while warning military action alone won’t defeat the threat posed by Islamic militants.

“There is a tendency to see military kinetic action as the silver bullet on the Islamic threat,” Maj.-Gen. Jonathan Vance told the Commons’ foreign affairs committee. “In fact, kinetic action does not address the root causes.”

Officials refused to say why Canada is one of the few Western nations not helping fund a UN-sanctioned, African-led force that will take over from French forces.

Thursday’s committee hearing was the first time parliamentarians have been briefed in public about Mali, where French and Malian troops are battling Islamist forces in the northern half of the country.

Canada’s main contribution has been making a C-17 military heavy-transport plane available to France until Feb. 15 to help move French troops and equipment into Mali.

Vance said more than 350 tonnes of French armoured vehicles, medical supplies and ammunition, as well as an unreported number of troops, have been moved since Jan. 17. The C-17 is being used to transport French units and not African forces, Vance said, and National Defence has estimated the cost of deploying the plane for a month will be about $18.6 million.

An unknown number of special forces soldiers are also in the country; Vance said they are tasked with protecting Canadian diplomatic staff and other government assets, and will not be used to defend Canadian mining operations or other interests.

Canada has committed $13 million in humanitarian aid, and is helping train Nigerien armed forces while Canadian police officers are working with counterparts in the region. Yet the officials refused to explain why Canada is not providing financial support for the Africa-led International Support Mission to Mali, the UN-sanctioned mission to prevent the Islamists from turning northern Mali into a base of operations. Instead, Foreign Affairs assistant deputy minister Kerry Buck said “we are continuing on the humanitarian front,” adding that Canada “is doing its part” in “a complex crisis with a lot of causes.”

Liberal defence critic John McKay said the “necessary contribution that needs to be made at this point is to training and helping the Africanled mission. We all agreed it should be an African-led mission, but if they are not properly financed and trained, you increase the chances of failure.”

The officials downplayed the impact an influx of weapons from Libya two years ago — when Canada and its allies were helping topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi — has had on the crisis.

“During the time of the fighting in Libya, there was an outflow of arms,” Buck said. “But (the Islamic militants) have been well stocked for the past few years.”

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, meanwhile, noted the government has closed a number of embassies in Africa, including in neighbouring Niger, and has dropped a large number of African countries as aid recipients. This, he suggested, has had a negative impact on Canada’s ability to monitor and influence what is happening on the continent.

“Canada is very much engaged in Africa,” Buck replied. “There’s been no stepping away from Africa. There’s a high degree of engagement.”