In his talk, Robert Fowler, a Canadian diplomat held hostage by al Qaeda for 130 days in 2008, will paint a startlingly frank picture about the state of a world redefined by clashing civilizations.
This lecture is presented as part of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies' "Assaulting Cultural Heritage: ISIS's Fight to Destroy Diversity in Iraq and Syria" conference, taking place at Concordia University on September 26.
While there is no charge for this event, please register in advance online here.
Robert Fowler is a Canadian diplomat with over 38 years of public service. Most recently, he was the special envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Niger from 2008, and tasked to find a solution to the conflict in Agadez region.
While engaged in his UN mission, Fowler and his colleague, Louis Guay, were captured by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on December 14, and held hostage deep in the Sahara Desert for nearly five months. In November 2011, HarperCollins Canada published his account of that experience entitled, A Season in Hell: My 130 days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda, which was later published by Québec Amérique as Ma Saison en Enfer.
Fowler was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa in 2010 and from Queen’s in 2011. In November 2011, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.