OTTAWA –
The federal Liberal government has quietly given itself more time to provide a force of 200 peacekeepers that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first promised to the United Nations almost five years ago.
The commitment to create a “rapid response force” was one of three pledges Trudeau made at a major peacekeeping meeting in Vancouver in November 2017, with the government pledging to deploy them within five years.
But while internal documents obtained by Global Affairs Canada from The Canadian Press show the commitment was set to expire last March, the Department of National Defense says the cabinet recently added another year.
“The Cabinet’s authority covering the QRF and other contributions to UN peacekeeping operations was renewed in March 2022 for a period of one year,” Defense Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said in an email.
Canada fulfilled the other two pledges by deploying a helicopter unit to Mali in 2018-19 to assist with medical evacuations and by providing a transport aircraft to transport troops and supplies to various UN missions in Africa.
The government’s failure to deliver the promised rapid response force comes despite the United Nations saying it needs several such forces now and the United States asking Canada late last year to honor its commitment.
Washington’s request came ahead of a peacekeeping meeting in South Korea in December, where countries were asked to provide new commitments to fill gaps in both funding and peacekeeping missions on the ground in Africa and elsewhere.
Asked if Canada still intends to honor its commitment, Lamirand said: “Canada regularly engages with UN officials to assess when and where a QRF may be required.
“Any deployment of the QRF will be following a decision by the Government of Canada to do so in support of a specific UN mission within clearly defined parameters,” she added.
Defense Minister Anita Anand did not mention a rapid reaction force during the South Korean summit, but told The Canadian Press a few weeks later that such a force “is not out of the question.”
Canada’s heavily redacted Global Affairs report suggests Canadian officials have considered options for deploying such a force, which would be designed to respond to emergencies and threats to UN personnel and facilities, as well as civilians.
Such units have been deployed in recent years to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, where they have clashed with various armed groups as the UN has sought to ensure security and stability.
The undated global affairs report notes that while the UN needs such units, there is an increased risk given “deteriorating security, increasing capabilities of violent extremist organizations, transitions, reduced resources (and) COVID-19”.
Trudeau’s 2017 commitment came as the Liberal government promised a renewal of Canada’s engagement with UN peacekeeping forces, which most observers and experts say has not actually happened.
Canada had 60 police and military personnel deployed as peacekeepers at the end of March, according to the United Nations. While this was up from a record low of 34 in August 2020, it was still less than half the number when the Liberals took power in 2015.
Canadian War College professor Walter Dorn said the government’s decision to maintain the commitment for another year offers a glimmer of hope that the force could materialize at some point.
However, “given that the QRF promise hasn’t been fulfilled in half a decade, it now looks like an empty promise made by Trudeau in 2017,” Dorn said.
“Canada should have made good on that promise long ago and made much more progressive contributions since then to support the UN, which is at the center of a rules-based international order.”
Royal War College professor Jane Boulden was also skeptical that a rapid response force would emerge, especially as the federal government focuses on strengthening Canada’s commitments to the NATO military alliance in light of the war in Ukraine.
To this end, she questioned whether the decision to keep the commitment alive was more about optics than a real intention to implement it.
“It’s safer to say the engagement is still open,” she said. “It will generate less criticism.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 31, 2022.
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