Canadian History

The evolution of Canada's involvement.

The DRC within the G8 Africa Action Plan

The 2001 G8 meeting in Genoa, Italy included planning focused on Africa. This led to Canada having the African leadership role in the June 2002 Kananaskis, Alberta G8 conference. The Africa Action Plan (AAP) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) were implemented at the 2002 G8 Conference. Canada’s commitment is to Africa as a whole within the integrated framework of the G8 nations. The 2003 G8 meeting in Evian, France expanded NEPAD to include other major donor and multilateral institutions. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is being added to Canada’s debt moratorium list. The Canada Fund for Africa (CFA) mandates 15 per cent for governance, peace, and security. This includes training West Africa soldiers for the DRC United Nations MONUC mission at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPC) in Ghana. The Canada based Pearson Peacekeeping Centre is involved at the KAIPC, specializing in Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) training.

Government Report: Canada International Development Agency

Understanding Peacekeeping in Eastern DRC; The Peacekeepers, a Documentary

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, in co-production with ARTE France, and 13 Production, “The Peacekeepers” cuts through the red tape of peacekeeping operations, bringing you onto the ground and into the offices of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping. With a specific focus on the Northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, “The Peacekeepers” delivers a greater understanding of the Canadian, American, and UN involvement in the complex realm of Peacekeeping in failed states today. With the memory of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, and the crises in Iraq and Afghanistan close at hand, the UN struggles to maintain its legitimacy while juggling the fragile balance between donor money, loss of life on the ground, and the will to help the eastern DRC rebuild itself.

Government Report: National Film Board of Canada

Canadian Mining Companies in the DRC

This 2004 Canadian Geographic article by Madelaine Drohan discusses the presence of Canadian mining companies in the DRC. Canada’s three largest firms in the Congo (Adastra Minerals, Tenke Mining, and First Quantum) began negotiating for mining concessions in the mid-1990s during the final days of the Mobutu regime. Drohan explains the political maneuvering that occurred following the installment of Laurent Kabila after the 1997 military coup, including the involvement of Adastra shareholder Jean-Raymond Boulle and former Prime Minister Joe Clark’s role as private consultant for First Quantum. This article provides the reader with insight into the prominence of mining within Canada’s business culture and the financial motivations for developing mining projects in conflict areas. Drohan’s article also implies that Canada’s involvement in the harvesting of the Congo’s natural resources is intimately connected with the state’s current political, social, and economic instability.

Magazine: Canadian Geographic

The Collective Responsibility Deficit: Canada and ONUC

In this dissertation, Balsara examines the United Nations financial crisis surrounding the UN Operations in the Congo (ONUC) mission of 1960-64, with a focus on the Canadian role. ONUC cost the UN over $100 million annually, with member states balking at footing their portions of the bill. Unpreparedness after UN involvement in the Suez Crisis, improper mechanisms for peacekeeping operations within the UN charter, and faulty leadership are cited amongst other reasons for the UN's near bankruptcy. At the Canadian level, Balsara also explores the role of the leadership under Diefenbaker and Pearson, who she claims wrongfully tried to “continue the legacy” of Canadian peacekeeping on the world stage by promoting collective responsibility, an attempt which ultimately failed. Notably, Balsara scrutinizes how the withdrawal of the ONUC negatively influenced future UN intervention and, specifically, Canada’s willingness to participate in and fund future peacekeeping missions.

Book: library.utoronto.ca

Re-Evaluating Canada's Decision to Participate in the UN Mission to the Congo

In this chapter, historian Sean Maloney evaluates Canada’s decision to participate in the UN Mission to the Congo (ONUC) in the early 1960s. Maloney suggests that Canadian involvement was driven primarily by Canada’s role within NATO and by a perceived need to curtail Soviet influence in the region by containing the scope of the conflict. Furthermore, Maloney argues that Canadian security and economic interests in the Congo also played a role in persuading the Canadian government to overcome its initial reluctance and contribute to the mission. By calling into question some of the widely-held notions concerning the motivations behind Canada’s participation in ONUC, Maloney’s analysis provides a cogent alternative to those accounts that view Canada’s role in the Congo through the lens of Canadian mythology. Although some may disagree with Maloney’s conclusions, this well-researched work provides vital insight into previously overlooked factors that contributed to Canada’s policy towards the Congo.

Book: Vanwell Publishing

Canadian Foreign Policy in DRC Takes Humanitarian Focus in 1996

Canada had two main options in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first was military based and required dealing with the militant refugees who controlled the refugee camps. The second option was to focus on delivery of humanitarian relief and refugee protection. There were three main issues in the decision making process: discrepancies in refugee numbers, coherence of intention, and differences in values. The mission was successful primarily thanks to the voluntary repatriation of 600,000 refugees before the mission began. Canada brings an international and humanitarian focus to a world issue that often resembles that of a NGO. Canadian foreign policy should recognize competing interests, including self-interest and power, international regimes, international laws, and international moral principles. Canada should make decisions based on moral grounds that are practical for the situation and context. Good ethical decisions require correct facts, similar goals, control of outcome, effective tools, and a combination of principles.

Book: UBC Press

Canadian Contributions in the DRC: Rhetoric vs. Action

Embassy Magazine critically examines the historical role of Canada in the DRC conflict. The article discusses a variety of issues, including the implications of Canadian mining profits in the DRC in relation to Canadian government policy and commitments pertaining to the conflict. Ultimately, the article focuses on the failures of Canada in contributing to conflict resolution in the Eastern Congo. The article focuses on how Canadian corporate interests have traditionally usurped humanitarian concerns, despite commitments to the UN by the federal government to take a leading role in the DRC. Embassy Magazine’s article is significant in that it discusses the historic role of Canada in the DRC, and how the conflict has remained a peripheral priority on the foreign policy agenda. Moreover, it gives a brief overview on a wide array of issues essential for understanding the past, present, and future of Canada in the Congo.

Magazine: Embassy Magazine

Operation CROCODILE: A Positive Canadian Impact

The Maple Leaf, a publication of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, describes Operation CROCODILE, the Canadian contribution to the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC). The officers serving, in total a nine-person team, are responsible for training military observers involved in MONUC as well as engaging with the Congolese people. Having asserted that their presence holds no ulterior motive, Canadian forces feel welcomed by the local Congolese. Despite challenges, the team is experiencing success, including the disarmament of rebel groups and successfully engaging in negotiations. Chief of Staff, L.Col Giguere asserts that it is critically important for the Canadian forces to leave a positive impact. Operation CROCODILE is seen as a successful Canadian involvement in the DRC.

Newspaper Article: Maple Leaf, Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces

Canadian Imperialism in the DRC

This article draws from various papers written about the DRC conflict to reinforce the fact that Canada has played a major role in the conflict, one that has been a predominantly negative one. The article is shaped by the belief that the millions of deaths in the conflict are mainly a result of Western Imperialism. One of the authors even goes so far as to say that the UN peacekeeping mission is purposely focusing on rebel groups in the east, effectively clearing the area for mining companies to thrive. Additionally, the author emphasizes the failure of the Canadian government to investigate its mining companies, even after receiving a poor review in the comprehensive UN report regarding illegal exploitation of natural resources. The article raises the question: is this really a war between the DRC and its neighbours? Or does it have more to do with the activities of the West, including Canada?

Magazine: The Dominion

CIDA Aid Lacks Specificity, Focus

On this web page, CIDA summarizes its humanitarian assistance and development efforts in the DRC, highlighting its contributions to elections, the DRC’s Central Bank, and health care services and infrastructure. A link to a database of the (mostly NGO-led) projects CIDA funds in the DRC is useful in determining the specific nature of Canada’s contributions to solving crises with origins in the conflict. The most apparent features of CIDA’s aid disbursements is the relatively small monetary contribution spread over numerous projects and the inclusion of the same dispassionate context descriptor on each project page. These characteristics point to the thinly spread nature of Canadian aid, as well as the lack of attention to the diversity of the projects. Ultimately, this resource reveals Canada’s good intentions, but also highlights its relatively hands-off approach to abating important conflict related humanitarian crises.

Government Report: Government of Canada

Canada's 'Just-in-Time' Diplomacy in the First Congolese Civil War

Cooper and Taylor contrast Canadian involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo with the absence of South African leadership at the beginning of the civil war. The authors describe Canada’s commitment as a marriage between the newly found political will and the window of opportunity. Under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office, Canada sought to enhance its reputation as an honest broker. The authors evaluate the significance of Jean Chrétien’s personal diplomacy in portraying the intervention as an affirmation of Canada’s moral authority and position as middle power. The chronicle of ill-fated ventures in the eastern Congo illustrates the institutional shortfalls, such as the commitment-capability gap. The analysis of decision making underscores factors that have trivialized Canada’s modest contribution toward peace. The article is instrumental in crystallizing the structural impediments of the international system that exhausted Canada’s naïve oversupply of political will in the Great Lakes region.

Journal Article: Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. Volume 39, Number 1, March 2001

Rights & Democracy Exports Canadian Values

This web-page links to various reports which outline the past and ongoing projects of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Development, a non-partisan charity created by an act of the Canadian Parliament in 1988. They highlight over twenty years of activity in the DRC focusing on aid to displaced refugees, support for victims of sexual violence, and training to promote fair and transparent elections. Specific initiatives include hosting the “Montreal Conference,” a dialogue between the Congolese Diaspora community in Canada and the federal government, and promoting women's rights through the “Coalition on Women's Human Rights in Conflict Situations” in Ituri, Kisangani and north Kivu. While this resource illustrates the dynamic role of a non-partisan NGO in a conflict, it provides scarce documentation as to the efficacy of its activities.

IO / NGO Report: Rights & Democracy

Canda's Diplomacy in the African Great Lakes Region

This brief reviews the Group of Friends of the Great Lakes Region meeting co-chaired by Canada and the Netherlands and the resultant International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) which were instigated in response to the escalation of violence in the DRC. The GoF meeting brought representatives from various African Great Lake countries together to establish a brief for the ICGLR. Among the conclusions of the meeting were four key themes for the ICGLR to address (peace, democracy, economic development, and social issues) and the strong emphasis on the need for a regional follow up mechanism- essentially a series of summits designed to continue the momentum established by the ICGLR. The brief, while not going into the mechanics of Canadian diplomacy, highlights the role of Canada as mediator in the DRC conflict and the results of its attempts to find an Afro-centric, diplomatic, supranational resolution to the fighting.

Government Report: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Tanzania)

Canadian Contributions in the DRC

This article, published in 2003, describes the role of Canada in providing humanitarian assistance through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to the region of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Canada is represented as a positive influence and an important source of help in terms of bringing about political stabilization, security, and peace. Based on the past contributions and the future mandates, we can see that Canada has been openly concerned with the Congolese crisis. Canada has been dedicated to building democracy and peace through the Interim Emergency Multinational Force and other benevolent diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian assistance. In addition, Canada has also contributed to improve the public health system in the DRC by donating to the UNICEF vitamin A/measles campaign and funding the blood screening program in the International Rescue Committee.

Newspaper Article: Canada News Centre