Stephen Dibblee

Inspired as a child by Canada’s contributions to United Nations peacekeeping, I have always had a passion for the UN. As a young member in C Division (Québec), I worked with several members who partook in the initial missions to Haiti. This further planted the seed in my head. Then in 2010, Haiti was devastated by an earthquake that killed over 200,000 people, including two RCMP members. I was posted in Woodstock, NB at the time. It was also the home of Sergeant Mark Gallagher, one of our deceased members. I did not hesitate to forward my name and be part of Canada’s humanitarian surge to the MINUSTAH mission. I was initially assigned to the major crimes section in Fort Liberté, before being re-assigned to the Joint Operations and Tasking Center at the UN HQ base, where I acted as a liaison officer between the mission and UN HQ in New York.

A few years after returning to Canada, I sought a new challenge. It was not long before my sights were set back at the UN mission in Haiti. In 2015, I began my second mission where I was very fortunate to have found my beautiful wife (Kim Deniger). I have three children from a previous relationship, as does Kim. This has made us the instant Brady bunch of six kids when we are all together.

Doing these missions in these periods of our lives comes with challenges. At the time of writing this, our kids are early to mid teens. So, during our earlier missions, the children were very young. It was our vacation leave from missions where we tried to make each moment count with them so they, too, could see some benefit. As those who have deployed know, leaving for a mission isn’t just a sacrifice for the member, it is a full family commitment for it to be a success. I was glad to be able to support Kim during her second mission. We were able to coordinate with the father of her children to still be able to maintain part of the sharing of custody. This allowed us to spend time Facetiming with Kim during her mission.

In 2020, I was provided a new opportunity to represent Canada, this time with the European Union’s Civilian and Security mission in Mali. My work with the EU has focused on providing strategic advice to the Malian government departments and I developed a series of programs focused on improving border management and security with the various Malian security forces. 

I think the resounding thing that hits everyone in mission is how lucky we are to live in Canada. While we know we are fortunate, we don’t fully appreciate how fortunate we are until we experience a deployment to a fragile and conflict-affected state. You see the standard of living based on ones’ birthplace and how it can affect the outcome of ones’ life. 

We, as Canadians, are most definitely blessed. Just by the virtue of being born here, we have so many opportunities: education, healthcare, etc. Every day during my last deployment when I walked outside of my house in Bamako, this same thought returned to me. The Haitians and Malians may not fully feel it, as they make the best of their situation in which they are raised. It is actually our presence in their lives that makes them feel limited in what they may be able to attain in their lives. And for the short periods that we are there in their lives, we, too, are limited in how we can make a difference. After all, we are only there for a year. But whether it’s bringing back items from Canada for their families or helping to pay for the school registration of their children, I tried to make some impact in the direct lives of those I know personally. And I hope that some part of the larger mission projects I helped develop can contribute to some level of legacy and growth for the greater population over the long term.