Leaders in NATO countries are guilty of crimes against humanity, yet only Africans are tried
In recent months, words like genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes have been used extensively in the media. These are important legal terms, and they shouldn’t be used loosely. Using them as political weapons risks making them meaningless. The word ‘genocide’ was coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish law professor Raphael Lemkin after he studied…
When we embrace the humanity of one another, borders don't matter and enemies become friends
Since the end of the Cold War, there has been almost endless war and genocide. This century has seen Afghanistan and Iraq torn apart by violence. We’ve watched the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world continue in Yemen year after year, and we’ve yet to see an end to the conflicts in Syria and the…
Or are false accusations crowding out the truth?
No other Nobel Peace Prize winner in recent memory has endured the wrath of the international media, the fury of global think tanks, and the scolding of UN, EU, and U.S. officials as much as Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The Washington Post describes the decision to bestow the Peace Prize on him as “the…
Kidnapped by Commanches then rescued, Cynthia Ann Parker was a victim of cultural genocide twice over
Movie enthusiasts invariably sing the praises of John Ford’s The Searchers. Released in 1956 and starring John Wayne, the film has been described as a masterpiece and shows prominently in critical lists of the best films ever made. It’s inspired by a true story. Or maybe that should be stories in the plural. The Searchers…
Rhea Clyman was the first western journalist to expose the forced famine that killed millions in Ukraine
She’s considered the first western journalist to expose the Soviet famine-genocide that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s. But although Rhea Clyman sent numerous accounts of Soviet and Nazi atrocities to North American newspapers as a foreign correspondent, she was soon largely forgotten. That is, until four years ago, when Jars Balan, director…
Biden risks pushing Ethiopia onto a path of destruction that cannot be reversed
The Biden administration’s pressure on the Ethiopian government to find a peaceful end to the current war is justified on moral, humanitarian, and geopolitical grounds. However, the U.S.’s threats of sanctions have come and gone without any impact, signalling a lack of understanding of the Ethiopian psyche and a failure to appreciate the complexity of…
Former UN commander leads ‘critical conversations’ on impact of moral injury
The term “moral injury” is relatively recent in our understanding of trauma. When Canada’s Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire led United Nations peacekeeping troops in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi that took a million lives over 100 days, few Canadians beyond the military were aware of the severe psychological damage that witnessing such moral…Any attitude, word, action or law that draws us away from our common humanity steps toward genocide
Most people would agree that evil exists, yet very few of us understand it. We find it convenient to blame all the problems of the world on terrible but powerful individuals, or on one misguided group. In truth, there are good and bad people in every group, and there’s even good and bad in each…
We must educate the many Canadians who don’t know what happened to our Indigenous neighbours
I’ve been teaching high school students about Canada’s residential schools for a number of years. Indigenous content has recently been given a more prominent place in the British Columbia curriculum, and this has had an impact. Students now come to my class with some understanding of this tragic chapter in our history, and we’re able…
Former UN force commander leading ‘critical conversations’ on mental impact of moral injury
The term “moral injury” is relatively recent in our understanding of trauma. When Canada’s Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire led United Nations peacekeeping troops in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi that took a million lives over 100 days, few Canadians beyond the military were aware of the severe psychological damage witnessing such moral atrocities…