Earlier this month, the Standing Committee on National Defence of the House of Commons traveled to Mali and Senegal on a week-long fact-finding mission that included a meeting with Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who heads the UN stabilization mission in Mali. The committee was told by Annadif that the gap between Canada leaving in July and Romania beginning their deployment is three months and the mission’s activities would need to be scaled back during that period.

Although the federal government has reiterated their plan to end the Canadian deployment in July, NDP Member of Parliament Randall Garrison, who participated in the fact-finding trip, said “he intends to introduce a motion before the defence committee calling on the Liberal government to remain in Mali until Sept. 15, when the gap will be more manageable for the UN.”

Canada currently has 185 peacekeepers deployed in six United Nations missions, the vast majority in Mali.

WFMC’s Canadians for Peacekeeping project monitors the commitments that Canada has made to UN peacekeeping. The website is updated monthly with statistics from the United Nations, as well as WFMC President Dr Walter Dorn’s tracking of the status of the commitments.