WFMC President Dr Walter Dorn has an opinion piece in the Toronto Star today, August 22nd, titled “What Happened to Trudeau’s Peacekeeping Promise?” that summarizes the promises made by the Trudeau government, how they have failed to materialize, and where responsibility for that failure lies.
August 9th marked National Peacekeepers’ Day in Canada and WFMC, through our Canadians for UN Peacekeeping campaign, launched our annual fact sheet on Canada and UN Peacekeeping. The fact sheet reports that with the winding down of Canada’s deployment to Mali now underway, the number of Canadian peacekeepers will soon reach a critically low level. According to WFMC President Walter Dorn, “Canada’s deployment of an aviation task force to the UN’s Stabilization Mission in Mali was a step in the right direction. But that deployment of one year (plus a month) was shorter than most. A two or three-year deployment is what usually occurs.”
The Canadian military deployment in Mali will be completed by the end of this month, although the police component, currently at 10 police officers, has plans to expand to twenty by the end of 2019.
Additionally, earlier this month, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced that Canada will deploy a military cargo plane to Uganda, which will provide support to peacekeeping missions in Congo and South Sudan up to five days a month.
In addition to the annual fact sheet, the Canadians for UN Peacekeeping campaign includes a website that tracks Canada’s peacekeeping commitments and is updated monthly.
