Op CALUMET: Growth within the Force Military Police Unit (FMPU)

June 29, 2021 - Defence Stories

By Major Jeremy Smith, Military Police Officer, Canadian Armed Forces

Caption

Force Military Police Unit (FMPU)

Since 1985, Task Force El-Gorah (TFEG), under Operation CALUMET (OP CALUMET), has been the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) contribution to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). The MFO mission is to observe, verify, and report potential violations of the Treaty of Peace between Egypt and Israel and facilitate dialogue between them to build trust, enhance transparency, and support enduring peace in the region.

The Canadian Armed Forces Military Police Group (CFMP Gp) provides personnel to strategic positions within the FMPU of the MFO. Specifically, these positions are the Force Provost Marshal and Commander of the FMPU, the FMPU Sergeant Major, and the Senior Investigator in charge of serious and sensitive investigations.

The mission of the FMPU is to provide a multinational and professional police force which provides advice to the Force Commander and his/her staff on security and force protection efforts in the interest of the maintenance of discipline.

Working in a multinational environment brings with it the opportunity to both learn and develop. The Roto 2020 FMPU HQ has invested significant efforts on building partner capacity and professional development.  This has mostly focused on the multinational military police serving in the MFO FMPU, with the intent to understand other nations’ Military Police culture, thus enabling the chance to bring lessons observed and learned back to the CFMP Gp.

Members of the CFMP Gp over the span of Roto 2020 have been successful in optimizing and growing the MFO FMPU from 12 to 24 members from other MFO contingents. Throughout the optimization, the focus was on contributions to the MFO’s main effort.