A Canadian icon of humanitarianism urged Glendon students to “get your boots dirty” by working in a developing country and experiencing what life is like for 80 per cent of humanity, as he delivered Glendon's annual John W. Holmes Memorial Lecture.

Right: Dallaire speaks to a standing-room only crowd in Glendon's lecture hall

Lieutenant-General , former commander of the UN mission to Rwanda between 1993 and 1994 and now a Canadian senator, made the remarks in 91��ɫ Hall on Nov. 23, in a wide-ranging talk on the revolutionary changes that have taken place in warfare and international relations, including the tragic use of child soldiers in conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa.

In describing how the use of child soldiers came about, Dallaire talked of this being a revolutionary time where the status quo no longer exists. “For the last 20 years we’ve been into a whole new set of parameters in regards to security,” he said, “Where we used to have classic war for which we were prepared with all our technology and uniforms and structures and so on...that all disappeared and we have nothing to handle it.”

Dallaire said the problem of child soldiers began in Mozambique in the late 1980s and continues because leaders in the Western world are “risk averse” and reluctant to become involved in the complex and ambiguous situations that give rise to the conflicts in which they are used. “We haven’t necessarily applied all the laws to stop it,” he said, citing new legal concepts such as humanitarian space and sovereign nations’ responsibility to protect their citizens.

Above: Prof. Stanislav Kirchbaum, Appathurai scholarship winner Dona Dunea, Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire and Glendon Principal Kenneth McRoberts

Eighty per cent of humanity is living in inhuman conditions, he continued, and that poverty is the essence of it. “These massive abuses of human rights are creating the rage that is initiating the extremism that is bringing terrorism, and it’s going to continue to generate a security problem,” Dallaire said.

Child soldiers are a “weapons system”, he explained, putting the problem into military parlance. “What is the system to render them ineffective, to make them a liability to the adults so they won’t use them and then don’t recruit them? That is what we are working on now….  What you can do is join an NGO. Join the NGO community. Get involved in the NGOs because they are evolving massively in numbers and they are starting to coalesce more, they are starting to cover all the bases in humanity and they are, for you, an opportunity to get into the field and to see what is happening today with the state of humanity.

“I believe [they] will be far more the voice of humanity in the future,” Dallaire said. “They will influence public opinion and policy more than the nation states themselves because they’re without borders.

“There should be maybe a rite of passage, that what you require is a pair of dirty boots underneath your bed that have been soiled in the earth of a developing country. Where you went to see what happens to the 80 per cent of humanity. You bring that back here, where the 20 per cent are, and you significantly influence the policies and how we actually will be advancing humanity…. So get your boots dirty, get involved.

For more information on what is being done to stop the use of child soldiers, Dallaire recommended the website , the public mobilization campaign of the Child Soldiers Initiative, which he founded in 2010.

As is customary at the annual lecture, the winner of the Edward R. and Caroline Appathurai Scholarship in International Studies was announced. This year's award went to Glendon student Dona Dunea.

More about the John W. Holmes Memorial Lecture at Glendon

The annual John W. Holmes Memorial Lecture at Glendon honours the late John W. Holmes, a Canadian diplomat, writer, administrator and international relations professor at Glendon from 1971 to 1981. Holmes was a tireless promoter of Canada at home and abroad, in political, diplomatic and educational circles. He also participated in the founding of the United Nations and attended its first General Assembly in 1945.

Shortly after his death in 1988, a memorial fund was set up at Glendon under the leadership of Professor Albert Tucker, principal of Glendon from 1970 to 1975 and chair of the Department of History at the time, to create a series of annual lectures honouring Holmes, sponsored by Glendon's International Studies Program. It was launched in 1989 by the late Edward Appathurai, who established international studies at Glendon, Tucker and three Glendon graduates, Jim Dow (BA '75), Marshall Leslie (BA Comb. Hons. '75, MBA '80) and Martin Shadwick (BA '76, MA '78), who had attended Holmes’ course on Canadian foreign and defence policy.

By David Fuller, YFile contributing writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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A catalyst for dialogue and healing is 91��ɫ film Professor Colleen Wagner’s Governor General’s Award-winning play . This electrifying drama was the inaugural production of Rwanda’s ISÔKO Theatre in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide (see YFile, June 27, 2008).

Left: �����ٰ��������Jacqueline Umubyeyi, as Mejra in Colleen Wagner's The Monument. Photo by Nick Zajicek.

Translated into the local Kinyarwanda dialect and directed by , a former student in 91��ɫ’s Graduate Program in Theatre and the founding artistic director of ISÔKO, the play premiered in Kigali and toured throughout Rwanda. Harbourfront Centre’s presents the North American premiere of ISÔKO’s production (with English surtitles) at 91��ɫ Quay Centre in Toronto April 27 to May 1.

Intimately staged and accompanied by song and African drumming, The Monument tells the story of a young soldier who has been convicted of war crimes committed during a genocide. Just as he is about to be executed, a mysterious woman who is both his saviour and tormentor offers him freedom − at a price. Billed as a “profound excavation into the nature of forgiveness”, this highly physical and imagistic production paints a contemporary portrait of a country whose resilient voice continues to be a beacon of hope and reconciliation.

Shortly before The Monument opens at Harbourfront, a second play penned by Wagner – this one a very topical, made-in-the-moment riff on Canadian politics – hits another Toronto stage. Wrecking Ball 12: Are You Dying to Vote? swings into the electoral debate tonight at Toronto’s Theatre Centre – exactly one week before Canadians head to the polls.

is a fast and furious compendium of short works of political theatre. Playwrights hand over scripts to the directors and performers for rehearsal a mere week before the show, which is performed for one night only – usually to a fully-packed house. Founded in Toronto in 2004, The Wrecking Ball went national in 2008 when it was adopted in cities coast to coast.

Wagner is one of six writers contributing works “both strategically and from their hearts” to the current Toronto edition. The details of her piece have not yet been announced, but if The Wrecking Ball’s track record is any indication, it will be a part of a theatrical romp long remembered.

Showtime is 8pm. The Theatre Centre is located at 1087 Queen St. West at Dovercourt. Tickets are pay-what-you-can at the door.

Another catalyst for political dialogue is the latest work by 91��ɫ theatre professor and playwright Judith Rudakoff, which opened in Whitehorse on April 21. The River offers a vivid, poetic and unflinching glimpse into the intersecting lives of marginalized people in the community where it was created. Directed by Rudakoff’s colleague, Professor Michael Greyeyes, the production runs to May 1 at the Yukon Arts Centre Studio theatre.

Above: A map of Whitehorse drawn by Joseph Fish Tisiga, for the "Ashley Cycle" that inspired The River

The River was born out of Rudakoff’s ongoing -supported project Common Plants: Cross Pollinations in Hybrid Reality. In 2008, Rudakoff visited Whitehorse twice to lead her "Ashley Plays" workshop, in which participants collectively devise a cycle of short, site-specific performances that share a character named Ashley and a common theme – in this case, the theme of "home".

The material developed in those workshops was so compelling that the collaboration continued into subsequent years. Rudakoff worked with local artist Joseph Tisiga and David Skelton, artistic director of Whitehorse’s , a professional company dedicated to the development of live theatre relevant to northern audience to write the play. Nakai is producing it in partnership with the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC).

The three artists drew inspiration for The River from both the extreme natural beauty of the Yukon and the ugliness that beauty can mask. Episodic and non-linear, the narrative is told by members of the largely untraceable "ghost population" of Whitehorse: a derelict vagrant, a missing high-school girl, a Tilley hat-wearing tourist, a transient worker and even an alien abductee. These disparate voices take the audience on an unbridled journey through a world of longing and belonging that is both real and imagined.

The production aims to promote conversation and action in the community. YAPC is actively inviting and offering free tickets to individuals who might never otherwise attend a production at the Yukon Arts Centre, as well as arranging a special invitational matinee performance at the local Salvation Army shelter. At the end of the run, YAPC and Nakai are co-hosting a community conversation to discuss the issues brought up in the play.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Left: Annie Bunting

Bringing together historians of slavery and women's human rights scholars, this workshop will explore the phenomenon of forced marriage and enslavement from comparative and historical perspectives.

During conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda and Rwanda, women were kidnapped, raped and forced into "marriages" with combatants. recently found such gender violations to constitute a new crime against humanity of forced marriage as opposed to sexual slavery.

Workshop speakers will explore the merits of prosecuting those responsible for forced marriage under the heading of Sexual Slavery, Forced Marriage or Enslavement? They will also explore the historical antecedents of servile marriage and enslavement of women.

A keynote presenter at the workshop is , chair of the Women's Forum in Sierra Leone, a national umbrella organization of women's groups in the region. M'Carthy has been working with the for the past three years and will speak about the experiences of female victims in the Sierra Leone war. Other presenters will discuss comparable practices in Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC.

Speaking at the workshop are:

• , president of Free the Slaves
• Gaëlle Breton-LeGoff, a lecturer at the University of Quebec in Montreal
• 91��ɫ law & society Professor
• , a senior researcher in children, armed conflict and human rights at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University
• 91��ɫ Distinguished Research Professor Paul Lovejoy, director of The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples and
• Rosaline M’Carthy, President, Women's Forum of Sierra Leone
• , Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA), Harvard Law School
• Osgoode Hall Law School Professor
• University of Hull Professor Joel Quirk,
• , RCUK Fellow in International Slavery at the University of Liverpool
• , 91��ɫ PhD candidate in history, The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples
• Jody Sarich, DePaul University, Free the Slaves

This workshop is the first of two conferences supported by a grant. In February 2011, Bunting will host a larger international conference in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Today's workshop is supported by numerous areas at 91��ɫ, including the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime & Security, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, the dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), and The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples.

For more information, visit The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples website or contact Kathy Mirzaei, interim graduate program assistant, Department of Sociology, LA&PS.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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If you pass a law to prevent discrimination against persons with disabilities, how do you know whether it’s being enforced, let alone making a difference?

Marcia Rioux (right), director of the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research (YIHR) and professor in the Faculty of Health’s School of Health Policy & Management, is working internationally, particularly with countries with limited resources, to develop a unique and innovation solution for the reporting requirements set out in the United Nation’s .

The United Nations requires all governments that have ratified its Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities − as Canada did on , 2010 − to provide information on the measures they have taken to integrate persons with disabilities into their societies. But this reporting is often limited to cataloguing laws, policies, and programs that may have little impact on the day-to-day lives of the people they’re intended to help.

Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), a multi-year international collaborative project, is establishing a global monitoring system to address disability discrimination. The research project, based in YIHR, is led by Rioux and Bengt Lindqvist − a former Cabinet Minister in Sweden, former UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, and long-time activist on disability rights. The team includes a group of 91��ɫ researchers and international colleagues who are creating a roadmap that will allow countries to evaluate their laws, policies and programs to comply with the United Nations’ standards.

“Collecting and reporting on evidence-based data forces governments to acknowledge that the challenges people with disabilities face are not just anecdotal,” says Rioux. “Our project allows evaluation to happen within the context of the experiences of people with disabilities to objectively measure where discrimination is now while developing and tracking solid trend data to determine if and how things are getting better.”

In September, the Africa Regional Monitoring Centre opened its doors in Kigali, Rwanda and will act as a focal point for disability monitoring and reporting in the region. Agreements with centres in Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America are expected in the near future. The (SIDA) awarded the research team over $2 million in 2009 to open the four regional centres.

Each centre will act as a focal point for monitoring disability rights in that region, and will play a key role in empowering local people with disabilities to lead disability rights monitoring projects. “Regional monitoring is most sustainable when local people are involved since it puts long-term roots into the community,” says Rioux. “The vast majority of disabled people around the world face endemic poverty − many don’t have jobs or go to school or have basic literacy skills. Engaging people with disabilities to lead this process is a more holistic approach to addressing the challenges they face, both as individuals and a collective.”

When all four centres are operational, Rioux anticipates that hundreds of people with disabilities will be engaged in disability rights monitoring activities. The centres will host training on what disability means as a human right, how to collect data and conduct evidence-based research, and how to write and file human rights reports. Groundwork is also being laid to connect monitors with disabilities to other local rights-seeking groups, such as religious-based, race-based and gender-based, to get them coordinating their efforts together instead of separately.

"The Faculty of Health’s worldwide research aims to help people live healthier lives while co-creating rejuvenated health systems,” says Harvey Skinner, dean of Health. “Professor Rioux's research is an excellent example of how 91��ɫ University is on the front line of our increasingly complex, simultaneously global and local world."

Previous phases of this project focused on developing and piloting tools and methods to monitor disability rights. In 2006, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ()’s Community-University Research Alliances program provided Rioux and her team with just under $1 million to fund Monitoring the Human Rights of People with Disabilities in Canada, which is currently in its last of five years.

In 2008, Rioux also received a two-year $40,000 grant from to research disability and social, economic and cultural rights. She has also received funding from the , and been invited to consult with governments and disabled persons associations around the globe to discuss disability rights. Recently, she and her team wrote the chapter on disability rights monitoring for the .

“Professor Rioux’s disability rights research reflects both the value 91��ɫ places on social justice and her expertise in leading large-scale collaborative research projects of international significance,” says Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “This type of knowledge mobilization is a crucial step in making governments more accountable for the social policies they set, and reflects the social input that’s possible when expertise is globally shared.”

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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91��ɫ film Professor Colleen Wagner’s current project, “Theatre of the Wounded”, places women at the centre of heroic myths, a space they have not traditionally occupied. Wagner's creative undertaking, which is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, seeks to give women and girls a new role and voice, something that no longer characterizes them as diminished or victimized.

Right: Colleen Wagner

Often typecast as temptresses, stoic wives or the spoils of war, women have been overshadowed in myths by the male protagonist. Wagner's project, which includes the writing of a play, the film documentation of the research process and the preservation of oral traditions, will be developed in post-genocide Rwanda and post-apartheid, AIDS-plagued South Africa.

Wagner says she is interested in “how trauma and atrocity impacts upon the ways that women in particular come to understand their affiliations and notions of community, responsibility and citizenship and how these might give shape to a new female-centred mythology.”

She considers post-genocide Rwanda a site where women’s roles are changing, since their traditional ones are no longer sustainable in the post-traumatic climate. Wagner says that Rwanda offers an ideal setting for an exploration into how these changes may inform a new female-centred mythology.

Her multi-faceted and collaborative project will bring together artists, women’s organizations, the local community and other professionals. During the first phase of the project, Wagner will travel to Rwanda and South Africa to lead workshops with women’s organizations, students, teachers and artists. With the help of a cinematographer, she will capture the process and make it available as a documentary. She will also be travelling to various memorial sites, prisons and throughout the countryside to record traditional oral myths. This essential component of her project, she says, will ensure that the oral stories and discussions can be made available as archival records that will be submitted to various libraries and universities in both Canada and South Africa. Following the completion of this research, Wagner will mount an initial sketch in Rwanda, Cape Town and Johannesburg of a play that will bring her research and oral traditions together.

The final play will be performed in Toronto, Rwanda, South Africa and as a 91��ɫ student theatre production. Though the play itself will be a fictional narrative, Wagner places great importance on the research potion of the project “in order to let the women’s voices speak to their particular environment…and give the play a base in reality.”

The stories portrayed in the play will rise out of the actual experiences of women who survived horrific political events, coped with troubled realities and went on to rebuild their lives and the lives of their families. For Wagner, “A new female-centred myth, is timely” in light of the ongoing bloody civil wars, genocides and rapes.

Wagner is a professional playwright, film script and short fiction writer. Her first stage play, Sand, was shortlisted for best international play at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, England, in 1989. She won the 1996 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for her play The Monument, which was also nominated for a Dora Award. The Monument has been translated into French, German, Romanian and Mandarin, and has been produced across North America and in Australia, Europe and Beijing – the first commercial production of a Canadian play to be produced in China. In 2006, The Monument became the first production by a non-black writer to be presented by Toronto's Obsidian Theatre Company.

Wagner's other stage credits include Eclipsed and The Morning Bird, which premiered at the in Fredericton, NB in 2005. Her other current projects include a new play titled Home, a screenplay adaptation of The Monument, and the story-editing of a documentary film, Hallowed be thy Name.

Submitted to YFile by Vivian-Sofia Mora, a fourth-year visual arts student in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Fine Arts.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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