Peacekeeping

Canada and Peacekeeping

from the Veterans Affairs Canada, Remembrance Day resources
[online] http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/ November 3, 2008. site

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.

for symbols and music about Remembrance Day http://www.craigmarlatt.com/canada/symbols_facts&lists/remembrance_day.html