The Pearson Medal of Peace is an award given out annually by the United Nations Association in Canada to recognize an individual Canadian's "contribution to international service". Nominations are made by any Canadian for any Canadian, excluding self-nominations. The medal was first announced in 1979 and named in honour of Lester B. Pearson, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Canada's fourteenth Prime Minister. The medal was to be selected by a jury of "eminent Canadians" and awarded by the Governor General of Canada on United Nations Day, October 24. [1] After the 2004 medal was awarded to Roméo Dallaire, it was not awarded again until it was revived in 2011 to honour peace activist Ernie Regehr. [2]
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields.
Roméo Antonius Dallaire is a retired Canadian politician and military officer who was a senator from Quebec from 2005 to 2014, and a lieutenant-general in the Canadian Armed Forces. He notably was the force commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994, and for trying to stop the genocide that was being waged by Hutu extremists against Tutsis. Dallaire is a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) and co-director of the MIGS Will to Intervene Project.
Events from the year 1946 in Canada.
Murray McCheyne Thomson was a Canadian peace activist
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 872 on 5 October 1993. It was intended to assist in the implementation of the Arusha Accords, signed on 4 August 1993, which was meant to end the Rwandan Civil War. The mission lasted from October 1993 to March 1996. Its activities were meant to aid the peace process between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The UNAMIR has received much attention for its role in failing, due to the limitations of its rules of engagement, to prevent the Rwandan genocide and outbreak of fighting. Its mandate extended past the RPF overthrow of the government and into the Great Lakes refugee crisis. The mission is thus regarded as a major failure.
To be mentioned in dispatches describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy is described.
Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside, CC was a Canadian university professor, diplomat, and civil servant. He was the Canadian ambassador to Mexico from 1944 to 1947, and the commissioner of the Northwest Territories from January 14, 1947 to September 15, 1950.
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda is a book by Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire of the Canadian Forces, with help from Major Brent Beardsley. It was first published by Random House Canada in September 2003.
Mbaye Diagne was a Senegalese military officer who served in Rwanda as a United Nations military observer from 1993 to 1994. During the Rwandan genocide, he undertook many missions on his own initiative to save the lives of civilians.
The orders, decorations, and medals of Canada comprise a complex system by which Canadians are honoured by the country's sovereign for actions or deeds that benefit their community or the country at large. Modelled on its British predecessor, the structure originated in the 1930s, but began to come to full fruition at the time of Canada's centennial in 1967, with the establishment of the Order of Canada, and has since grown in both size and scope to include dynastic and national orders, state, civil, and military decorations; and various campaign medals. The monarch in right of each Canadian province also issues distinct orders and medals to honour residents for work performed in just their province. The provincial honours, as with some of their national counterparts, grant the use of post-nominal letters and or supporters and other devices to be used on personal coats of arms.
The Lion, the Fox & the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Rwanda and Yugoslavia is a non-fiction book by Canadian journalist Carol Off. The hardcover edition was published in November 2000 by Random House Canada. The writing was favourably received and the book was short-listed for the Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. With numerous interviews and extensive research behind it, the book presents biographies of three Canadians in United Nations roles in the 1990s: Roméo Dallaire, Lewis MacKenzie, and Louise Arbour.
Shake Hands with the Devil is a 2007 Canadian war drama film starring Roy Dupuis as Roméo Dallaire, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in August 2007. Based on Dallaire's autobiographical book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, the film recounts Dallaire's harrowing personal journey during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and how the United Nations didn’t heed Dallaire's urgent pleas for further assistance to halt the massacre.
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire is a 2004 Canadian documentary film about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It was directed by Peter Raymont and inspired by the book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003), by now-retired Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire. It was co-produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Société Radio-Canada, White Pine Pictures, and DOC: The Documentary Channel.
John McGarry, OC is a political scientist from Northern Ireland. He was born in Belfast and grew up in Ballymena, County Antrim. He is currently the Stephen Gyimah Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Lester Bowles Pearson was a Canadian politician, diplomat, statesman, and scholar who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. He also served as MP for Algoma East, whose largest municipality was the then-new City of Elliot Lake.
The F. B. Watts Memorial Lectures, commonly known as the Watts Lectures, is a series of public lectures held at the University of Toronto Scarborough several times annually. It was established in 1970 and named after Fred Watts, a former professor of geography at the University of Toronto and founding member of the University of Toronto Scarborough, initially known as Scarborough College, who died a year before the inception of the lecture series. The series was inaugurated by Lester B. Pearson, former Prime Minister of Canada.
Ernie Regehr, is a Canadian peace researcher and expert in security and disarmament. He co-founded Project Ploughshares, a peace research organization based in Waterloo, Ontario, with Murray Thomson in 1976 and served as its Executive Director for thirty years. Project Ploughshares is an ecumenical project supported by the Canadian Council of Churches. Regehr has been a Canadian NGO representative and expert advisor at numerous international disarmament forums including UN Conferences on Small Arms.
Jessica Dee Humphreys is a Canadian writer specializing in international humanitarian, military, and children's issues.
In international law, Nuclear Weapons Free Zones are areas in which a group of states has prohibited the presence of nuclear weapons, according to criteria set and recognized by the United Nations. On the international level, Canada is not a part of any Nuclear Weapon Free Zone as defined by the United Nations. Canada is a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation on Nuclear Weapons, a statute that has similar aims to those of NWFZs and even encourages the establishment of multinational NWFZs, but is not directly comparable. However, certain areas within Canada have voluntarily designated themselves as Nuclear Free Zones (NFZs) or Nuclear Weapons Free Zones (NWFZs). Generally, these nuclear weapons free zones and nuclear free zones are codified within Municipal and Provincial jurisdictions.