It’s so easy, when reflecting on Remembrance Day, to think of both world wars and, almost as an afterthought, the Korean conflict. Canada’s participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions, in the 1990s Balkan wars, and Afghanistan, just doesn’t come to mind so easily.
Historica Canada is a charitable organization that offers programs in both official languages that you can use to explore, learn, reflect on our history, and consider what it means to be Canadian. The Memory Project is a volunteer speakers bureau that arranges for veterans and Canadian Forces members to share their stories of military service at school and community events across the country.
This year’s Memory Project video highlights the 60th anniversary of Canadian peacekeeping efforts in Cyprus, one of its longest overseas military commitments. This second most deadly peacekeeping operation for Canadians remains unresolved, six decades later, although tensions on the Mediterranean island have stabilized.
This new episode, entitled, ‘Patrolling the Green Line: Canadian Peacekeepers in Cyprus,’ “provides an overview of Cyprus’s contested sovereignty since the Second World War, and focuses on Canadian involvement in the United Nations mission. It offers the perspectives of three Canadian veterans, Sergeant (Ret'd) Robert Thomas, Major (Ret’d) Paul Hale, and Lieutenant-Colonel (Ret’d) Ronald Bragdon, who served in Cyprus over three decades.
From the Korean conflict (1950-1953), Canada has served as a peacekeeper in no fewer than 50 missions: Egypt, three separate missions; Cambodia, four separate missions, 1954-2000; Congo, ongoing from 1960 on; Cyprus, 1964-1993; Syria, providing ongoing logistical support to the peacekeeping mission since 1974; Gulf War, 1990-1991 and after; Balkans, 1991-2004; Somalia, 1992-1994; Rwanda, 1993-1996; Haiti, two missions, 1995-2004; East Timor, 1999-2001; Ethiopia and Eritrea, 2000-2003; Afghanistan, 2001-2014.
Canada’s direct participation in UN peacekeeping efforts has declined since the 1990s and has shifted more towards more militarized missions through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ((NATO), rather than traditional peacekeeping duties. For the first time in Canadian history, women serve in the front lines.
