Canada failed to deliver on its long overdue commitment to provide up to 600 military and 150 police personnel for UN peace operations, a pledge it made over a year ago at the 2016 Ministerial conference on peacekeeping.

At the Vancouver Ministerial Meeting on Peace Operations earlier this month, Prime Minister Trudeau, accompanied by Defence Minister Sajjan, Foreign Minister Freeland and International Cooperation Minister Bibeau did offer some new pledges of support. These include making specialized equipment and personnel available on a case-by-case basis (up to 200 troops and accompanying equipment; an ​a​viation ​t​ask ​f​orce of armed helicopters; and tactical airlift); joining the “Elsie Initiative” to increase the proportion of women deployed in UN peace operations; and support for a set of non-binding principles on reducing recruitment and use of child soldiers.

Just prior to the Vancouver Ministerial, World Federalist Movement – Canada published a volume of 10 op-ed length essays by leading Canadian experts entitled, “The United Nations and Canada: What Canada has done and should be doing for United Nations peacekeeping.”

The publication and subsequent press releases from WFMC garnered quite a lot of media attention. Some examples::

• Canada is expected to unveil its long-awaited peacekeeping plan tomorrow (interview with WFMC President Walter Dorn) (CBC Radio 1: All in a Day (Ottawa), November 14, 2017)
• Canada to spread its peacekeeping efforts around (Toronto Star, November 15, 2017)
• Canada’s peacekeeping commitment affects possible UN Security Council bid (Canadian Press in the National Post, November 17 2017)
• Trudeau defends Canada’s new peacekeeping plan (The Globe and Mail, November 15 2017)