April 14, 2015
1592
Canada’s most famous soldier, retired general Roméo Dallaire, is coming to Huron-Bruce next month to support federal Liberal candidate Allan Thompson.
Dallaire will make several campaign-style stops across the riding with Thompson on Friday, May 15. In addition to a midday rally for hundreds of high school students in Clinton that day, Dallaire will finish the day with a major speech, to be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Kincardine branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. Tickets for the evening event in Kincardine are $20 each and can be purchased on-line at: pc.ca/a7de. Further details of other events will be forthcoming at
www.allanthompson.ca.
Lt.-Gen. (retired) Roméo Dallaire was the commander of the United Nations mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and later authored a best-selling memoir about that harrowing experience, "Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda."
Since then, he has become an international celebrity, addressing hundreds of audiences around the world about the Rwanda tragedy and his work on the plight of child soldiers and war-affected children.
Dallaire’s second book, "They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children," focused on the mission of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative.
“Roméo is a national icon, a dear friend and perhaps the most admired Canadian alive today,’’ says Thompson, a former political reporter with the Toronto Star, who has written extensively about Dallaire and the Rwanda genocide. “I’m thrilled that he’s taking time from his hectic schedule to come and visit Huron-Bruce.”
Thompson first reported on Dallaire during the tragic events of 1994 and later documented Dallaire’s descent into a breakdown caused by post-traumatic stress disorder and then his re-emergence into public life. Thompson made two trips to Tanzania to report on Dallaire’s testimony before the Rwanda war crimes tribunal. He also travelled with Dallaire to Sierra Leone in 2001 for The Star to report on a fact-finding mission on the plight of war-affected children.
In 2004, Thompson joined Dallaire on the retired general’s emotional return trip to Rwanda for the 10th anniversary of the genocide. That journey was captured by a film crew from White Pine Pictures, which produced the award-winning documentary, "Shake Hands with the Devil."
Dallaire was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2005 by then prime minister Paul Martin. He retired from the Senate last year to focus on his work on the child soldiers file and a third book.
Allan Thompson (R) with Roméo Dallaire and UN peacekeepers in Congo in 2012 during a trip that included
stops in Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan as part of Dallaire’s work with child soldiers; photo by Peter Bregg
Thompson returned to Africa again with Dallaire in 2012 on a trip to Rwanda, Uganda, Congo and South Sudan during a film shoot that resulted in a documentary on Dallaire’s crusade on behalf of child soldiers. Thompson said that over the years, the working relationship forged between a general and a journalist evolved into today’s close friendship. Despite his hectic schedule, Dallaire insisted on visiting Huron-Bruce to support Thompson’s candidacy.
His work as a journalist with The Star gave Thompson the opportunity to travel extensively, nationally and internationally. He spent time as a reporter in the tiny central African country of Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, and as a professor at Carleton, launched the Rwanda Initiative, a five-year partnership between Carleton’s journalism school and its counterpart in Rwanda.
The project sent more than 175 Canadian volunteers to Rwanda as teachers, trainers and media interns and also brought Rwandan journalists to Canada to study.
Thompson is the author of "The Media and the Rwanda Genocide" and co-author of "The Canadian Reporter," the standard journalism text for Canadian journalism students. He also founded Carleton’s Centre for Media and Transitional Societies, which sends journalism students to the developing world each year on internships.
In 2010, Thompson was presented with a Governor General’s medal by Michaëlle Jean in recognition of his work promoting press freedom in Africa. In 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by Gov. Gen. David Johnston for his work fostering journalism education and human rights in the developing world. He was nominated
for the medal by none other than Roméo Dallaire.
Allan Thompson (L) greets Roméo Dallaire after introducing him at a speaking engagement in 2014; photo by Leo Solano
Written ByLiz Dadson is the founder and editor of the Kincardine Record and has been in the news business since 1986.
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