OTTAWA — Fifty years after Lester B. Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping create the world's first peacekeeping force, The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (PPC) brought together military, civilian and police perspectives to Canada’s capital Monday December 10, at a National Press Club of Canada Newsmaker Luncheon entitled From Peacekeeping to PRTs. (PRT is the acronym for Provincial Rehabilitation Team.)
"Whether you get the call for Afghanistan, Haiti, Darfur or elsewhere,
achieving peace and security goals today is a complex proposition," said
Suzanne Monaghan, President of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. "Ours is in the tradition of a practical peace broker — a tradition that is alive and well in the dozens of countries where Canadian soldiers, police officers and humanitarians are working every day. It's also a role we sometimes struggle to understand in a contemporary context."
Monday's Newsmaker event provided a forum for several distinguished speakers to share their experiences and reflect on the way changing conflict is shaping the way Canadian military, police and civilians contribute to peace operations around the world.
Moderated by Global TV's Peter Harris, speakers included
Brigadier-General David Fraser of the Canadian Forces, Chief Superintendent David Beer of the RCMP and Mirwais Nahzat of the World University Service of Canada.
The event was introduced by PPC Director and former CBC
correspondent David Halton and Dr. Ann Livingstone, Vice-President of Research and Education at the PPC.
The event drew on Canada's current engagement in Afghanistan but
also included reflections on the nation's experience as it has differed in
every mission over the years from 1956 to the anticipated UN deployment in Darfur.
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