Photo: Mykola Swarnyk via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
File No. 485294 · Adjudicated
Roméo Dallaire
Politician — UN commander during Rwandan genocide, Canadian senator, humanitarian advocate
Born
1946
Birthplace
DENEKAMP, NETHERLANDS
Citizenships
NL / CA
Canadianness Score
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
3.5/ 5
Weighted across 6 scored criteria
Designation
Ya No Ya 🤔Knows that bud → buddy → pal is not an escalation in friendliness.
Scorecard
Path B — not born on Canadian soilI. Origin
Born on Canadian soil — no
DENEKAMP, NETHERLANDS
Canadian parentage — yes
One Canadian parent
Citizenship on record — yes
Held — by descent or naturalisation
II. Residency
Formative years spent in Canada — yes
Raised — Canada
Lived in Canada by choice — yes
Residency on record as an adult
Worked or filmed in Canada — yes
Credits filed north of the 49th
III. Cultural evidence — not scored
Section III is recorded for the file only. It carries no weight under either path.
Publicly claims to be Canadian — not scored
Says so, out loud
Canada claims them back — not scored
Claimed, enthusiastically
Fun fact
Wrote the internationally acclaimed memoir 'Shake Hands with the Devil' about his experiences in Rwanda, which was later adapted into a film.
The verdict
Led the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, then came home to become a senator and one of Canada's most powerful voices against indifference to atrocity. A decorated soldier who turned his trauma into advocacy, he's as Canadian as they come — apologetic even when he has nothing to apologize for, and relentlessly fighting for what's right.
Adjudicated by
The Standings Committee
Status
Final — appealable
Related files
More from the files: Ya No Ya 🤔
References — en.wikipedia.org