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Canadian Military Missions Since The End Of The Second World War

1947 - South Korea. United Nations Temporary Commission in Korea (UNTCOK). 2 soldiers acted as observer elections. 1947-1948.

1949 - Kashmir. United Nations Military Observer Group in Indian and Pakistan. (UNMOGIP) Up to 39 observers served here until 1979. Canada also supplied an aircraft to headquarters until 1996.

1950 - Korea. United Nations Command Korea. 6,146 troops. By the end of the war in 1953 over 26,000 troops served. From 1953 to 1978 we participated with the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission with a very small number of personnel. After 1978 the military attach in the South Korean embassy assumed this responsibility.

1954 - Middle East. United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. (UNTSO). 11 personnel. One of Canada’s longest peacekeeping missions helped enforce the ceasefire between Israel and its new neighbours. This mission continues with 8 personnel. *

1954 - Indochina. International Commission for Supervision and Control (ICSC). 133 military observers in Vietnam to supervise the French withdrawal and monitor border incursions. In 1973 the number of personnel was reduced to 20.

1956 - Sinai. United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF I). 1,007 troops helped stop hostilities after Israel, France and Great Britain attacked Egypt over the Suez Canal. The mission lasted from November 1956 to June 1967.

1958 - Lebanon. United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon. (UNOGIL). 77 Observers to monitor arms smuggling across the Lebanese border. The mission lasted from June to December 1958.

1960 - Congo. Organisation des nation unies au Congo (ONUC). 421 troops helped maintain law and order in this African country from July 1960 until June 1964.

1962 - West New Guinea. United Nations Security Force in West New Guinea (UNSF). 13 RCAF personnel served from October 1962 to April 1963 to help maintain peace in this Indonesian island.

1963 - Yemen. United Nations Yemen Observation Mission. (UNYOM). 36 troops and observers monitored disengagement between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from July 1963 to September 1964.

1964 - Cyprus. United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). 1150 troops. Canada maintained a strong presence in Cyprus until 1993 when troops were withdrawn for other uses. There is currently one staff officer still with the mission. Over 25,000 personnel served in Cyprus during our forty-year mission. *

1965 - Dominican Republic. Mission Of The Representative Of The Secretary-General in the Dominican Republic. (DOMREP). 1 observer served with the mission from May 1965 to October 1966.

1965 - India and Pakistan. United Nations India-Pakistan Observer Mission (UNIPOM) 112 troops served at any given time from September 1965 to March 1966 to monitor a ceasefire.

1968 - Nigeria. Observer Team Nigeria (OTN).2 personnel monitored a ceasefire between the Nigeria government and Biafran rebels.

1973 - Middle East. United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II). 1,145 troops served from October 1973 to July 1979, again to supervise a ceasefire between Israel and Egypt and control the buffer zone between the countries.

1973 - Vietnam. International Commission for Control and Supervision (ICCS). 248 personnel helped monitor the ceasefire and return of prisoners to Vietnam. Completed in 1974.

1974 - Middle East. United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). 190 personnel just withdrew on March 24, 2006 ending three decades of peacekeeping on the Israel-Syrian border involving 12,000 troops stationed near the Golan Heights. 4 personnel remain for now, that will be reduced to 2 by July. *

1978 - Lebanon. United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. (UNIFIL) 117 troops served between March and October 1978 to assist with Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

1986 - Middle East. Multinational Force and Observers. (MFO) This mission was created after the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Canada began contributing personnel to this non UN mission in 1986, when 1,800 troops were sent. Twenty years later we still have 31 personnel stationed in Egypt. *

1988 - Iran and Iraq. United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group. (UNIIMOG). Up to 525 personnel supervised the disengagement of the two sides from August 1988 to February 1991.

1988 - Afghanistan and Pakistan. United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan (UNGOMAP). 5 observers monitored the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan from May 1988 to March 1990.

1989 - Central America. United Nations Observer Group in Central America (ONUCA) 174 personnel helped verify compliance with the Esquipulas Agreement signed between Nicaragua and its neighbours to end conflict in the region. Canada participated from November 1989 to January 1992.

1989 - Namibia. United Nations Transition Assistance Group Namibia (UNTAG). 301 personnel served between April 1989 and March 1990.

1990 - Kuwait. (The Persian Gulf War) 2,700 personnel including three ships and a squadron of CF-18s and a medical unit helped a UN force push Iraq out of Kuwait. Through 1991.

1990 - Haiti. United Nations Mission for the Verification of the Elections in Haiti. (ONUVEH). 11 election observers served from November 1990 to February 1991.
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Access encompasses both the ease and timeliness with which health services can be obtained (Office of Health Care Access, 1999; Millman, 1993). Metrics of measuring access to health services include:

* Having health insurance,
* Adequate income, and
* A regular primary care provider or
* Other regular source of care (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000).
* Utilization of certain clinical preventive services, such as, early prenatal care, mammography, and Pap tests, can also indicate better access to services.
* Rate of avoidable hospital admission

Health care models:

* Purely private enterprise: Exist in poorer countries with sub standard health care dominated by private clinics for wealthier population.
* In almost all the countries, a private system exists in addition to Government health care system (such as Medicare and Medicaid in U.S). This is sometimes referred to as Two-tier health care.
* The other major models are public insurance systems:

o Social Security Health Care model where workers and their families are insured by the State.
o Publicly funded health care model, where the residents of the country are insured by the State.
o Social Health Insurance, where the whole population or most of the population is a member of a sickness insurance company.

Models for access: access to health services can be impeded broadly by:

* Affordability: Economic barriers (no insurance, poverty),
* Availability: Supply and distribution barriers (inadequate or inappropriate services or primary care providers, geographic unavailability due to difficult infrastructure);
* Unavailability of services, lack of transportation and other infrastructure), and

Language and cultural barriers.

Discussion:
_________________________

A. Insurance coverage:
____________________

* Approximately 85% of Americans have health insurance.
* Approximately 60% obtain health insurance through their place of employment or as individuals,
* Various government agencies provide health insurance to 25% of Americans.[3].
* In 2004, 45.8 million (15.7%) Americans were without health insurance [1].
* According to 2000 U.S. census data [2], the percentage of large firms (200 employees or more) offering health benefits to its retirees fell between 1988 and 2001 (excepting a spike in 1995).
* Although most types of health insurance cover common treatment services and screening and diagnostic tests, many preventive services and interventions are not covered. For example, while most health insurers will pay to treat emphysema, lung cancer, and other tobacco-related diseases, for example, few will reimburse for smoking cessation programs or medications.
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On February 8, 2008 President Vladimir Putin of Russia made an extraordinary speech at the Expanded Meeting of the State Council. The 13 page speech was titled Russia’s Development Strategy to 2020. The document is a template, a guide for the creation of the 21st Century Flex-State. A State with strong, even aggressive leadership that seeks to keep its story, its history, its people alive and prosperous in an era of competitive globalization where information about any organization, any individual, in any country is nearly impossible to hide. It is a bold, even historical document about Russia’s experience with a method of US economic torture called The Shock Doctrine (see Naomi Klein’s book of the same name), and its trials and tribulations with low birth rates and dismal healthcare. It is astonishingly open.

More than anything, though, it’s about the long-term. It is about country and national interest coming first, agency second.

Putin recognizes that only The State has the authority to wield power to protect the national interest, play referee when financial markets convulse, and ensure that a nation’s infrastructure, its culture, its people and its security come first. After all, those are the critical components of The State. It is vital that, as much as possible, The State should attempt to remain unincorporated. “We have rid the country of the harmful practice that saw state decisions taken under pressure from commodities and financial monopolies, media magnates, foreign political circles and shameless populists, a practice that was not only detrimental to our national interests but that cynically ignored the basic needs of millions of people,” said Putin.

According to Goldman Sachs, Russia has become a “remarkable” performing member of the BRIC’s (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) with its economy growing at an annual rate of 6.8 percent. Even so, according to Putin, much remains to be done and Russia can’t borrow and spend its way to national prosperity and security. In short, Putin’s “non-democratic” plan, much maligned in the world’s mainstream media, is working.

Putin’s Way

The American people would do themselves a big favor by reading his speech. The entire US economic, political, military, and diplomatic apparatus–presidential candidates included—would do their country a great service by taking the time to understand and heed the message behind the words. That message is clear: The State exists to serve the interests of the people. The State will not fade away, it can’t. Indeed, Evolutionary Psychology teaches that human beings are hierarchical creatures that in groups need structure, discipline, and unitary purpose. The State should be the guardian of the national psyche and not the captains of industry.
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Deforestation is basically the loss or destruction of forest habitat, primarily as a result of the action of human beings.

It is the single largest source of land- use greenhouse gas emissions, and accounts for around 18 -20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

We know from a previous article, trees and vegetation act as sinks or stores for carbon dioxide, one of the most important greenhouse gases. Stored carbon taken out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis through decades of growth is released back into the atmosphere as vegetation and trees are cut down and burnt, or, as unburned organic matter slowly dies. This process contributes to atmospheric CO2 levels.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) who are the leading source for information on the status of the worlds forests define forests as, “land with a tree canopy of greater than 10%, and an area of more than half a hectare”. The organisation defines deforestation as, ” the conversion of forest to another land use or long term reduction of the tree canopy cover below the minimum 10% threshold.”

Land change and co2.

Land use changes are driven almost entirely by emissions caused through deforestation, which is highly concentrated in a few countries. Indonesia contributes approximately 30% of land use CO2 emissions with Brazil around 20%. It is estimated that about 80,000 acres or 32,000 hectares are being lost every day. This is the equivalent of about 117,000 km2, (45,173 sq miles) each year.

Total world rainforest cover is now about 6 million km2, (2,316,602 sq miles), which equates to about 5% of Earth’s land surface. Only a few thousand years ago, rainforests covered about 12% of the worlds land surface, around 15.5 million km2, (6 million sq miles). A quick calculation reveals that if forest cover is being lost at the rate of 117,000 km2 a year, then it will only take in the region of 51 years for the world’s rainforests to be destroyed! (6,000,000 divided by 117,000).
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