On peacekeeping plans, Trudeau Liberals taking piecemeal approach

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VANCOUVER — The UN is giving early indications that it approves of Canada’s forthcoming plans for peacekeeping, which are expected to involve several smaller contributions rather than a single specific mission that gets all of the government’s available resources.

The Trudeau government is promising to finally open the curtains — at least part of the way — on Wednesday on what it has offered to the UN for peacekeeping in terms of Canadian military personnel and equipment.

The long-awaited move comes more than a year after the Liberals first promised to make up to 600 Canadian troops and 150 police officers available to the UN.

Sources say rather than focusing on one mission, Canada is offering the UN a veritable grab bag of goodies in the form of helicopters, trainers and other assets for a variety of different missions.

While such an approach might seem scattershot, the UN’s undersecretary general for field support says it is actually preferable when it comes to countries like Canada.

Atul Khare, who oversees the day-to-day operations of peacekeeping missions in the field, says that’s because many missions are short on the type of high-end equipment and personnel that Canada can offer.