Address by Minister Dion on the margins of the UN General Assembly for the Invest in Sustaining Peace Pledging Conference for the Secretary-General's Peacebuilding Fund

September 21, 2016 - New York City, New York

Check against delivery. This speech has been translated in accordance with the Government of Canada’s official languages policy and edited for posting and distribution in accordance with its communications policy.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada, the country whose Lester B. Pearson invented peacekeepers, will return to peacekeeping.

Recently, the Government of Canada launched a $450-million program called the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program [PSOPs] and the pledge of up to 600 Canadian Armed Forces personnel to be available for possible deployment to UN peace operations.

We will do so not only because Canadians want to be where the pursuit of peace and protection of civilians requires us, but also because it is in Canada’s national interest. Canadians are facing threats that do not respect borders and leave no country immune.

Canada will return to peacekeeping with its courageous and effective armed forces, its professional diplomats and its solid and wide expertise in development assistance.

Of course, Canada is returning to peacekeeping in a world that has changed.

Conflicts today are not what they used to be: where two armies willing peace but untrusting of the other would welcome a UN peacekeeping force standing between them.

Conflicts today are asymmetrical and require a multi-faceted and comprehensive approach, including military, diplomatic, security, development and humanitarian responses brought together under the broad umbrella of “peace operations.” Peacekeeping has become peace operations.

These asymmetrical conflicts also demand a military intervention that is in close cooperation with local authorities and a range of international and regional partners.

Today, peace operations face a world where global insecurity is being fuelled by what might be called a syndrome of mistrust.

Communities and populations that have lived peacefully side by side, forging family ties, have come to fear, hate and attack each other.

The Cold War has been gradually succeeded by the exacerbation of tribal tensions, the clash of old nationalisms, the revolt against glaring inequalities, the corrosive impact of endemic corruption and, of course, increased sectarian extremism, culminating in globalized terrorism.

When neighbours and refugees or other foreigners are marginalized or persecuted because of political, religious, ethnic or racial differences, all the ingredients are in place to exacerbate mistrust and provoke an explosion.

A millenarian, apocalyptic ideology has emerged—a perverse distortion of the Qur’an, one that condemns to death all who refuse to submit to it. This deadly ideology, whose first victims are Muslims, must be fought with the utmost determination by all of civilization.

We have to act. Canada must do its part. And we will do it. That is why the Government of Canada will make substantial announcements about our forthcoming role in peace operations in close coordination with our allies.

My colleagues Harjit Sajjan, Minister of Defence, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development, and I are in the process of consulting our allies to make sure that our deployment will be optimal and have the greatest impact.

But what I announce right away, today, here at the United Nations, is that Canada will pledge up to $15 million over the next three years to support the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund.

I also announce that Canada will provide a further $10 million for the UN’s Department of Political Affairs to support capacity-building, mediation and negotiation in support of peace.

Our government is committed to making Canada a determined peacebuilder. A critical way to achieve that goal is to be back—strongly, with courage and responsible conviction—in peace operations.

Contacts

Chantal Gagnon
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
343-203-1851
chantal.gagnon@international.gc.ca

Media Relations Office
Global Affairs Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
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