Ceremonies are being held across the country, including a national ceremony at the peacekeeping monument in Ottawa, for National Peacekeepers Day.
“We try to remember our fallen comrades and that's what it’s all about,” says Bill Timbury with the MGEN Lewis MacKenzie Chapter.
Retired chief warrant officer George Stark served in Cyprus in 1977. He was in charge of the finance section at the time.
“The territories were still separate, the Greeks and the Turks,” he says. “For us as peacekeepers if we wanted to venture over on the Turk-side we had to get a pass, we had to be back before midnight.”
Timbury hopes to remind people of the difficulty included in working as a peacekeeper.
“Some people think it was easy, it was never easy,” he says. “Being there we were between two factions, most of the time we got there during a conflict or shortly afterwards.”
Many lost friends, as well. The biggest loss of members was on this day in 1974.
“We had a buffalo shot down going from Egypt to Damascus,” says Timbury. “We lost nine members.”
Those who served say peacekeeping has changed over the years.
“They call it now peacekeeping and peacemaking, and that's what happened in Bosnia and places like that in the early 90's with more or less peacemaking,” says Timbury.
This year also marks a 20 year partnership between the RCMP and municipal and provincial police sending experts on missions.
More than 90 police officers across Canada are serving in international peace operations today. Since police started contributing, 42 in Halifax have served overseas in eight different missions.
Members of the Dartmouth-Halifax chapter of ventures in UN Peacekeeping say it’s important to mark the day, particularly for the younger generation.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jaquline Foster.
