Canada and Peacekeeping

During the first half of this century, some 1.5 million Canadians were called upon to defend peace and freedom around the world during the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War. More than 110,000 Canadians lost their lives. Following these terrible conflicts, Canada began looking for ways to prevent wars. Contemporary peacekeeping is a natural extension of Canada's longstanding commitment to the principles of peace and freedom.

Following the Second World War, Canada was involved in military observer missions in the late 1940s, particularly during the Arab-Israeli and the India-Pakistan conflicts. From 1950 to 1953, Canada joined other UN nations to resist aggression during the Korean War. However, it wasn't until 1956 that the term peacekeeping entered the popular vocabulary, thanks to a Canadian.

During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester B. Pearson - later Canada's 14th Prime Minister - proposed that a multinational UN peacekeeping force be sent to the Suez to separate the warring parties. For his visionary idea, Mr. Pearson was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize.

Peacekeepers are traditionally placed between hostile forces to supervise cease-fires and the withdrawal of opposing forces. In recent years the roll of peacekeepers has expanded to include the delivery of humanitarian aid, the supervision of elections, the repatriation of refugees, the disarming of warring factions and the reclamation of shattered landscapes through the clearing of mines, etc. Another increasingly important aspect of peacekeeping is support for stable government and human rights, including the organization of electoral systems, and the training of police forces and the judiciary. These new peacekeeping activities now involve many Canadian civilians, in addition to the Canadian Armed Forces.

Canada is one of a handful of nations to which the United Nations can regularly turn to obtain peacekeeping advice and expert peacekeepers. Canada has participated in the overwhelming majority of peacekeeping operations mandated by the United Nations Security Council. Tens of thousands of Canadians have served in more than 40 separate peacekeeping missions. But Canada's contribution to peacekeeping is not without risk: more 100 Canadians have died in peacekeeping operations and hundreds more have been wounded.

In 1988, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded collectively to UN peacekeepers in recognition of their historic efforts to limit violence and promote peace. A Canadian invented peacekeeping and Canada has always been one of the world's most committed peacekeeping nations. In a small way, every Canadian can share in the honour the Nobel Prize confers on the peacekeepers of the world, including Canada's peacekeepers.