The Canadian Peace Service is a partnership comprised of the Brian Bronfman Foundation, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA), the Civilian Peace Service Canada (CpeaceSC), and i-CANADA. For them, ‘pragmatic peace’ is the practical implementation of peace initiatives. This partnership understands that Canada has a precious gift: Canada is the world in miniature. Canada welcomes and includes people from more cultures per capita than any other nation. Through its history, Canada has developed a core capability for negotiating between national sovereignties, rather than fighting. Canada is in truth a “trans-national” nation, embracing the patchwork quilt of humanity with a culturally embedded expertise in peace creation.
Canada invented international peacekeeping, from a foundation of experience in domestic accommodation. Canada traditionally celebrates people who have the most difficult kind of courage — the courage of the peacemaker. Today, however, Canada has let its heritage go undeveloped, and is not even in the top half of the countries around the world, which contribute troops for peacekeeping.
The Canadian Peace Service will re-ignite the flames that drove Canada to create global peacekeeping. The Canadian Peace Service will rebrand Canada, and breath life into its reputation as the global innovator for peacemaking. By professionalizing peace work and giving it the credibility, respect, and visibility it deserves, the Canadian Peace Service ultimately strives to become a firmly established, key component of Canada’s reputation for living in harmony at home and peacekeeping abroad. Preventing the escalation of conflict into armed violence will ultimately save billions of dollars and lead to wealth creation and the avoidance or alleviation of untold suffering.
The Goal of the Canadian Peace Service is to ensure that by the year 2020 Canada’s communities, in large part through the vision, knowledge and expertise of its community leaders and youth, will clearly be world leaders in both being at peace, and in being capable of making professional contributions to national and global peace making.