"On target: Canada’s mission in Mali: modern colonialism", 15 October 2018

This flareup of violence in Mali ignited in 2012 and the UN stood up the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in 2013. There are 56 nations contributing nearly 15,500 personnel to this peacekeeping mission, which is considered the most dangerous of all current UN operations...Given that Canada’s military role in this complex conflict...is simply to provide medical evacuations for the UN force, means that no one should expect our contribution to affect either the tactical or strategic outlook in Mali...it could be said that Canada has a vested interest in protecting Canadian mining assets in Mali...here are over 70 Canadian companies currently involved in extracting Malian gold, the largest of which being a firm called Iamgold...The revenue from Mali’s gold production represents roughly eight per cent of that country’s impoverished economy. The Malian government is partnered with the international mining companies and they receive about 18 per cent of the gross revenue...about 40 per cent of all revenue remains in the country. That means that 60 per cent of Mali’s gold returns, or 4.8 per cent of that nation’s GDP, flow out as profit for the international mining companies and their investors...Coincidently, investors in Iamgold include both of Canada’s public pension funds. This means that essentially every Canadian will benefit from maintaining the status quo in Mali, so long as it secures these lucrative mining interests.