The Toronto Star reports on how diplomat Robert Fowler’s memo on the Rwandan genocide was ignored by Ottawa bureaucrats during the killings. He and others are now calling on the federal government to overhaul the way it prepares for and responds to emerging humanitarian catastrophes and state-sponsored ethnic violence.
The “Will to Intervene(W2I) Project” report recommends that a new cabinet position to track and coordinate Canada’s efforts would ensure a more effective response to conflicts or atrocities in places like Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Congo. A parliamentary committee would hear from frontline workers and advocacy groups and hold the government to account for its actions or oversights. And a team of high-level diplomats would act as Canada’s lookout in the world, taking on the burden of crafting strategies to diffuse tensions or prevent them from escalating as they did in Rwanda.
For the full Toronto Star story, click here.
For a link to the report and to learn more about the W2I project, click here.
