Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion announced Wednesday that Canada is pledging up to $25 million to the United Nations peace operations, as Ottawa ramps up its campaign for a Security Council seat in 2021.
The three-year funding is aimed at enhancing UN capacity in conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding, Global Affairs Canada said in a statement.
The funding is provided as part of Canada’s new Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs), which was unveiled in August 2016.
“Canada is working closely with the international community in the fight for justice and security on the global stage,” Dion said in a statement. “Today’s announcement will enhance our already important and growing contribution to peacebuilding activities.”
The UN Department of Political Affairs will receive $10 million over three years to reinforce the UN’s ability to find political solutions to conflict through conflict prevention, mediation and conflict-resolution efforts, said the statement.
And up to $15 million will go to the UN Peacebuilding Fund to provide funding to respond to emerging crises in fragile and conflict-affected states, as well as help countries emerging from conflict.
Dion also announced $2 million in funding from Canada’s Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building Program that will support two Global Counterterrorism Forum initiatives: first to combat violent extremism at the community level, and the second, to foster international judicial and prosecutorial cooperation.
This latest funding announcement comes after Ottawa pledge in August $450 million for its Peace and Stabilization Operations Program and up to 600 Canadian Armed Forces personnel to be available for deployment to UN peace operations.
But the plan by the Liberal government to deploy Canadian peacekeepers on a yet-to-be-disclosed peacekeeping mission somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa drew heavy fire from the opposition Conservatives this week.
They accused the Liberals of treating the military like “pawns” by promising to support peacekeeping operations in exchange for a UN Security Council seat.
The conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa are dangerous, interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose reminded the House of Commons during question period on Monday as she zeroed in her sights on Liberal Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan.
“Even Romeo Dallaire agrees that a mission there would be deadly,” she said referring to Canadian Senator Dallaire, who in 1994 was the commander of the ill-fated UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda. “Does the prime minister understand this is not a peacekeeping mission but rather a dangerous deployment that will risk Canadian lives?”
Throughout its history, Canada has always been at the forefront of the global challenges of the time, Dion said Wednesday.
“As a nation, we have never stepped aside in the face of adversity,” he said. “As always, today we are at the table and doing our part.”
In March, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada’s candidacy for election to the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member for the two-year term that begins in 2021.
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