Background
– Excerpts and Findings of The urc Report
Major-General (Ret.) Lewis MacKenzie, quote from The
Chance of War:
If one thing really upsets me – you think
it shouldn’t – it’s hearing Canada described as
a “peacekeeping nation.” We are not a peacekeeping nation.
World War I, World War II, Korea – we have gone off and done
the right thing and there’s tens of thousands of crosses around
the world to prove that we’ve done that.
There are politicians who naively believe that
a bunch of constabulary-type Canadians, just ‘cause they’re
Canadians with pistols on their hips, running around the world,
will be a popular source for the international community to use
for peacekeeping work. That is B.S. We will not be invited. You
have to have well-trained soldiers to do this work. And sailors
and airmen
Canadian military spending has hovered at approximately 1% of GDP
($12 billion) for many years, and is much below what most of its
NATO Alliance partners spend. This means that we have a shortage
of trained troops, and that they are poorly equipped. Our troops
are spread very thinly as our government continues to make commitments
to peacekeeping efforts in Eastern Europe and Africa and military
operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Canadian troops are also compromised
by their aging, unreliable equipment. The forty-year old Sea King
helicopters used by our Forces are a continuing menace; our troops
share helmets and flak jackets that cannot stop bullets. And, as
Major Todd Balf notes in this clip from A
Question of Honour video, your home PC has more powerful and
up-to-date technology than our CF-18 fighter jets (although 80 CF-18s
are now finally being upgraded).
In addition to being starved of the resources it needs, the Canadian
Armed Forces have also been victims of other kinds of neglect. The
Somalia Inquiry had just begun to examine a neglect of leadership
in the Armed Forces when it was shut down mid stream by the federal
government prior to the 1997 election (see Whistling
Past the Graveyard). And, sadly, soldiers who are wounded in
action are often neglected when they return home. For example, Warrant
Officer Tom Martineau, in this clip from A
Question of Honour, felt betrayed after being seriously wounded
in the former Yugoslavia.
The underground royal commission Report
is quite critical of the way that successive federal governments
have let our military preparedness slide, but have continued to
increase our overseas commitments. You may agree and be angered
by the state of Canada’s Armed Forces and our diminished role
in international affairs. Or you may disagree. You may think that
Canada can and should play a different kind of role on the world
stage, one that does not require a strong military.
Canadians rightfully take great pride in our nation’s role
as peacekeepers and “honest brokers” in the world’s
conflict zones. These are indeed noble causes. However the nature
of peacekeeping has changed since our participation in peacekeeping
in the Suez conflict of the 1950s. One of the popular misconceptions
about international peacekeeping today is that it is much like police
work. You quietly walk “the beat” making sure that everyone
is behaving themselves. This is no longer the case. More often than
not, our soldiers are placed in the middle of dangerous combat zones
with adversaries in the midst of trying to kill each other. There
is no peace to speak of, no peace to keep.
In The
Chance of War, Captain Sandra Perron describes the challenges
of contemporary peacekeeping:
We had to deal with two belligerents that had
very little respect for the peacekeeping forces there. So here we
were, not at war, but we were in a war. It was frustrating. In Canada
when we do our infantry training, we’re trained to “close
with and destroy.” We got to Bosnia and we were dealing with
taking care of abandoned children at a mental facility and escorting
convoys and going through barricades. We were trained to do that,
too, but the mental aspects of closing with and destroying the enemy,
where you actually get rid of the rage, were so different from peacekeeping,
where you’re between the factions.
Major-General (Ret.) Lewis MacKenzie, in the following clip from
A Question
of Honour, describes how “peacekeeping” missions
today require well-trained and well-armed soldiers who may have
to kill to protect themselves and others who are in immediate danger.
This is a hard truth that the federal government and many military
brass believe should be downplayed to the Canadian public.
Questions Raised by the Findings
Stimulate classroom debate by posing any of the following questions
to your students. Encourage light research into the issues by sourcing
current events, newspapers, etc.
- Are our Armed Forces in Canada under financed and under resourced?
- Do we put Armed Forces personnel in jeopardy by sending them
on missions without proper direction, equipment and support?
- Do we make a fair contribution to collective security?
- Are our foreign policy options limited because we have let our
military decline over the years?
- Can and should Canada play a different kind of role on the world
stage, one that does not require a strong military?
Possible
Exercises / Activities for Students
The urc Report represents a good starting
point for consideration of defence and military issues in Canada.
It speaks to what kind of country we wish to be, and what kind of
role we wish to play in the world.
Suggested Activities
Secondary Level
a) Debate: Organize students into two teams to
research and debate the “yes” and “no” sides
to the following resolution: “Canada can play an important
role on the world stage without a strong and well-equipped military.”
b) Oral Presentation: Organize students into groups
to research and present their findings on a given peacekeeping mission
to which Canada has contributed. The teams should prepare their
answers to the following questions pertaining to that particular
mission:
- What was the context for the conflict?
- Who were the players?
- What was the declared objective for Canada’s
peacekeepers?
- What happened during the peacekeeping mission?
- Can the mission be described as successful?
- Why or why not?
Post-Secondary Level a)
Essay Assignment: Define Canada’s National
Interests and How They Should be Expressed in Our Foreign and Defence
Policies
b) Debate: Organize students into two teams to
research and debate the “yes” and “no” sides
to the following resolution: “In a Post Cold War Era, Canada
Can Enhance Its Security and World Security Without Having a Strong
Military.”
Resource
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