The federal Liberal government has quietly given more time to provide a 200-troop peacekeeping force that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first promised at the United Nations nearly five years ago. The pledge of a “rapid reaction force” was one of three promises Trudeau made during a major peace summit in Vancouver in November 2017, with the government pledging its deployment within five years. But while internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press from Global Affairs Canada show the commitment was set to expire last March, the Department of National Defense says cabinet recently added another year. “The Cabinet authority covering the QRF and other contributions to UN peace support operations was renewed in March 2022 for a one-year period,” Defense Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirante said in an email. Canada made good on the other two promises by deploying a helicopter unit to Mali in 2018-19 to assist with medical evacuations and by providing a transport plane to transport troops and supplies to different UN missions in Africa. The government’s failure to deliver on the promised rapid response force comes despite the United Nations saying it needs enough such forces now, and the United States asked Canada late last year to fulfill its commitment. Washington’s request came ahead of a peace summit 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 meet its commitment, Lamirande said: “Canada regularly works with UN officials to assess when and where a QRF may be required. “Any deployment of a QRF will be upon a decision by the Government of Canada to do so in support of a specific UN mission within clearly defined parameters,” he added. Defense Minister Anita Anand did not mention the rapid reaction force during the South Korean summit, but told The Canadian Press several weeks later that the force was “not off the table.” The heavily redacted Global Affairs Canada report suggests Canadian officials are considering 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 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, where they have clashed with various armed groups as the UN has sought to provide security and stability. The undated Global Affairs report notes that while the United Nations 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 pledge came as the Liberal government promised a renewed Canadian engagement with UN peacekeeping, which most observers and experts say has not actually materialized. Canada had 60 police and military personnel deployed as peacekeepers at the end of March, according to the UN. While it was higher than the record low of 34 in August 2020, it was still less than half the number when the Liberals took power in 2015. Canadian Forces College professor Walter Dorn said the government’s decision to keep the commitment on the table for another year offers a glimmer of hope that the force could materialize at some point. However, “since the QRF commitment has not been fulfilled in half a decade, it now looks like an empty promise made by Trudeau in 2017,” Dorn said. “Canada should have fulfilled this promise long ago and made far more progressive contributions subsequently to support the United Nations, which is at the heart of the rules-based international order.” Royal Military College professor Jane Boulden was also skeptical that the rapid reaction force would emerge, particularly as the federal government focuses on strengthening Canada’s commitments to the NATO military alliance in light of the war in Ukraine. To that end, he questioned whether the decision to keep the pledge alive is more about optics than any real intention to fulfill it. “It’s safer to say the engagement is still open,” he said. “It will attract less criticism.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 31, 2022.
