This is the year.

Saturday concluded a three-day conference in Toronto on the legacy of Indian Residential Schools and the work of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation commission. The conference was attended by Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, survivors of the residential schools, and hundreds of interested and concerned youth from all backgrounds. From discussions since the end of the conference, and the notable lack of media coverage on this important national event, I feel a need to emphasize a point: yes, there continues to be a need for advocacy around residential schools. Although I expect the inevitable negative responses that will follow this article, I would like to argue that there is a need for events that spread awareness and provide opportunities for honest dialogue around this part of our history and the continuing issues that emanate from it. Greater awareness about the atrocities committed in church and government run Residential Schools, the last of which did not shut down until ...

Hello! For everyone who's interested in the Kony 2012 campaign, Salvator and I wrote a piece for the Globe and Mail to try to raise awareness about the complexity of the issues addressed simplistically in Invisible Children's Kony 2012 video. We also provide a few things you can do if you're interested in promoting justice for the victims of the conflict in Northern Uganda! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/for-uganda-justice-is-complicated/article2362190/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=World&utm_content=2362190 For Uganda, ‘justice’ is complicated Special to Globe and Mail Update Published Thursday, Mar. 08, 2012 12:00AM EST An extraordinary thing happened on Monday night and Tuesday. Kony 2012 , an online video campaign by an American NGO called Invisible Children , went viral in social media, where it was shared tens of thousands of times. The campaign draws attention to fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, calling on th...

Salvator and I wrote an article for the website Insight on Conflict to provide advice for anyone interested in doing peace and conflict related research in Uganda. Check if out if you're interested! http://www.insightonconflict.org/2011/12/advice-research-uganda/

 (Here's a short essay i wrote for a law school application I thought some people might find interesting!)     The increased use of drones for counterterrorism in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Yemen, by the American military and intelligence service has stirred a great debate. Proponents argue that drones protect American soldiers, minimize civilian casualties through advanced surveillance and precision capabilities, and are the most effective weapon against AlQaeda. Due to these supposed merits, drones are now increasingly used in a controversial new strategy: targeted killings of high-level insurgents. In the emerging debate around drones, it is this strategy, and not the weapon itself, that must be scrutinized.     Targeted killings are strategically and legally problematic. The presumption that targeted killings contain damage to civilians is contestable: civilians continue to die in these attacks and many experts correlate increased targeted k...