Established in 1994 by the Government of Canada as the Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre (more commonly the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, or simply the Pearson Centre) was an independent, not-for-profit organization with its office based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its mandate was to support Canada's contribution to international peace and security. Operations ceased and the Centre closed around 2011. The property was sold by the government of Canada to a private individual in November 2013.
The Pearson Centre conducted education, training and research on all aspects of peace operations throughout the world, with the majority of its projects under way in Africa and Latin America. Services ranged from the training of police officers in Rwanda and Nigeria to serve as peacekeepers in Darfur; through delivery of pre-deployment training for Latin American peace keepers in Brasília; to the design and delivery of complex training exercises for use in Europe and Africa.
It also raised revenue through its specialized training and management courses, which it ran for individuals, governments and organizations around the world.
While in operation, the Pearson Centre worked with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana. The Centre provided facilitation support to the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law, which is a project of the USIP. The International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC) was founded on July 2, 1995, at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre.http://www.iaptc.org/ International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres The Pearson Centre also worked closely with the Canadian extractive sector to implement the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and provide training strategies to ensure that their security providers adhere to these international standards.
History
The Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre was created as an offshoot of the now-defunct Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies and became an independent organisation in its own right in 2001. Named in honour of Lester Bowles Pearson, the former Prime Minister of Canada and recipient of the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the inception of peacekeeping, the centre was established initially to train Canadian and foreign soldiers in the art of peacekeeping and conflict resolution for postings with United Nations Peacekeeping missions.
Lt.-Col. Alex Morrison was the first president of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, which was established in 1994 by the first Chretien government. He was followed by Sandra Dunsmore, and later Suzanne Monaghan. In 2012, the presidency of the centre was assumed by Kevin McGarr, previously head of CATSA.
In 1994, Jean-Jacques Blais was appointed chair of the centre, holding that position until he retired in 2002. Chairs have included several notable Canadians.
The centre was established at Cornwallis Park, in southern Nova Scotia, using facilities made available by the closure of CFB Cornwallis. Offices were later opened in Montréal, Ottawa and Halifax. Headquarters of the centre were moved during the Harper administration to the Ottawa office in 2008 while most of the operations remained in Cornwallis Park. The Montréal office was closed in 2008 and Halifax wound down by 2010.
As financial support to the centre was progressively withdrawn by the Federal government of Stephen Harper, operations were reduced and transferred to the Ottawa office. The centre's Cornwallis park facilities formally closed in 2011.
The name was formally changed to the "Pearson Centre" in 2012.
On September 26, 2013, the Pearson Centre announced it would be winding down its operations and closing its doors. Operations ceased with the final closure of the office November 28, 2013.
Senior management
William Morrison, founder William Alexander Morrison, MSC, CD, (1941– ) was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, he is a graduate of Xavier Junior College and a historian. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968 from Mount Allison University. He joined the Canadian Forces in 1959 and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1990. From 1980 to 1982, he was an instructor at the Royal Military College of Canada where he taught an undergraduate course in Canadian Military History. He was awarded his MSC in 1989. He was the 2002 recipient of the Pearson Medal of Peace, which is awarded for an individual's "contribution to international service."
From 1983 to 1989, Morrison was the military advisor to the Canadian permanent representative to the UN. He was vice-chairman of UN Peacekeeping Committee. From 1989 to 1997, he was the executive director of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies; and in 1994, he became the founding president of the Pearson Centre.
At closure Philip Murray was chairman and Kevin McGarr president at the time of the centre's closure in 2013.
The Pearson Papers The Pearson Papers were a Canadian peacekeeping press publications compiled by the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre for over 15 years. They were:
Pearson Paper 1: Public Information Campaigns in Peacekeeping: The UN Experience in Haiti; by Ingrid Lehmann In this, the first of The Pearson Papers, Ingrid Lehmann explores "the development of Public Information Campaigns [in Haiti], both civil and military, from 1994 to 1996. The main innovation of the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) was the introduction of the Military Information Support Teams (MIST)." MIST operations over three different phases of the peacekeeping mission in Haiti are examined: the initial deployments to Haiti as part of Operation Uphold Democracy; UNMIH under United States leadership; and, UNMIH under Canadian leadership. Pearson Paper 2: The Level Killing Fields of Yugoslavia: An Observer Returns; by James V. Arbuckle In the second of The Pearson Papers, James Arbuckle provides a lucid and personal account of the post-conflict situation in the former Yugoslavia. The author comments on the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords and analyzes the prospects for future peace in the region, through the prism of his considerable experience in military peacekeeping. Pearson Paper 3: African Peacekeepers: Partners or Proxies?; by Eric G. Berman and Katie Sams In this book, the third of The Pearson Papers, Eric G. Berman and Katie E. Sams examine current efforts to develop African peacekeeping and peace enforcement capabilities. They describe various Western and African capacity-building initiatives and attempts to resolve conflicts in Africa. Drawing on numerous interviews with policy makers and practitioners, they reveal the incongruities between Western “largesse” and African needs. Berman and Sams conclude that despite current Western and African efforts, the factors resulting in inaction four years ago in Rwanda still persist. Pearson Paper 4: Intelligence In Peacekeeping: The Cloak and the Blue Beret: The Limits of Intelligence-Gathering in UN Peacekeeping; by Walter Dorn and Out of the Closet: Intelligence Support for Post-Modern Peacekeeping; by David Charters This Pearson Paper contains two distinct chapters by two separate authors both dealing with the topic of Intelligence in Peacekeeping. Dorn looks at the United Nations’ view of “intelligence,” its reluctance to utilize and that exact terminology. Dorn explores how intelligence is an essential part of UN peacekeeping. Charters’ central argument is that post-Cold War conflicts have changed dramatically the character of peacekeeping operations, and that the change will now require peacekeepers to apply the full range of intelligence capabilities in order to bring such conflicts under control. Pearson Paper 5: The Laws of War and The Rules of Peace: Why Traditional Legal Models Do Not Work; by Thomas B. Baines In this the fifth of The Pearson Papers, Thomas Baines presents some operational, moral and ethical challenges that arise in the context of non-traditional military operations. As well, he proposes some institutional formalisms to help limit the potential negative consequences of dealing with these challenges. His analysis and recommendations are framed for military policy makers and field commanders, rather than policy makers and executives of the other parties that may be involved in the types of missions discussed. Pearson Paper 6: Confronting Rwandan Genocide: The Military Options What Could and Should the International Community Have Done?; by Douglas Anglin In this the sixth of The Pearson Papers, this essay explores promising courses of action that, given the necessary political will, would have been militarily feasible and morally justifiable. It assesses realistically their prospects of success in checking the haemorrhage in Rwandan lives and identifies the circumstances and significance of the opportunities missed. Particular attention is paid to the time frame as, with each day's delay, thousands of additional people died. As the scale of the ethnic killing became evident, demands mounted that “something must be done”. Yet, little serious thought was paid to what that “something” realistically might be. Meaningful military intervention would have proved problematic. The operational constraints on intervening rapidly and effectively in the middle of Africa in a country with limited infrastructure could not be dismissed as insignificant — or insurmountable. Pearson Paper 7: The 1999 United Nations and 2000 Organizations of African Unity Formal Inquiries: A Retrospective Examination of Peacekeeping and the Rwandan Crisis of 1994; by Terry M. Mays This the seventh Pearson Paper, takes a different approach in analyzing the peacekeeping related failures within Rwanda and the United Nations headquarters. In 1999, the United Nations initiated the Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations During the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. The following year the Organization of African Unity (OAU) opted to conduct its own independent investigation and established the International Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and the Surrounding Events. This essay utilizes these independent investigations as the foundation for a review of the peacekeeping failure in Rwanda. Several factors for failure can be identified from the UN and OAU investigations and each is explored in this study. The essay also examines whether the 2,000-member UN peacekeeping operation on the ground in Rwanda could have halted the genocide if the political will existed to accomplish the task. Five options for the future are reviewed and a postscript includes a brief discussion on the relationship of state sovereignty and humanitarian intervention as seen through the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Pearson Paper 8: Lessons Learned on UNMIK Judiciary; by Mark Baskin