Witness to genocide

Major Brent Beardsley (at right), with Professor Frank Chalk and Michael Innes.
Photo by Andrew Dobrowolskyj

History professor Frank Chalk invited one of his former students, Major Brent Beardsley, to speak to his class on the history and sociology of genocide on Tuesday.

Major Beardsley has just returned from accompanying Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire as he testified before the International Human Rights tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, about the Rwandan genocide, which claimed more than 1 million victims in 1994. He appeared with Dallaire in the documentary The Last Just Man, and worked with him on his memoir, Shake Hands With the Devil.

To mark the tenth anniversary of this terrible event, Professor Chalk, together with PAGE (Association des parents et amis des victims du génocide au Rwanda) is organizing a daylong symposium at Concordia on March 26.

A series of film screenings will take place March 26-28 in Room H-110 of the Henry F. Hall Building, including 100 Jours, by Nick Hughes (Kenya, 2001).

A photography exhibit called Images of Genocide will be mounted in the J.W. McConnell library complex from March 22-28.

The anniversary will be marked on Wednesday, April 7, by a ceremony and a minute of silence in the agora of the Judith Jasmin Pavilion at UQAM. Another ceremony will be held the same day at the Old Port. An ecumenical service will be held April 10 at 5 p.m. in the Salle Chemin du soleil, 1188 Champlain St., followed by an all-night vigil.

For more information on these and other events connected with the commemoration, please go to news@concordia.ca.