Since 2009, Strathmore local Christine Magill has been involved with doing education work and doing workshops about the events that really happened between April 7 and July 15 of 1994 in Rwanda, more commonly known as the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. 

Since Magill was working with some of the survivors that Immigrated to Canada, this prompted her to write a book depicting the stories of what happened. Her book is called 'The Hope that Remains: Canadian Survivors of the Rwanda Genocide.'

"It's a story about both their survival but also the experience of them coming to Canada. A lot of survivor testimonies just focus on what the trauma was, and it doesn't talk about what happened after the trauma," she said. 

Magill wrote the book in hopes that it would clear up any misconceptions about the events that happened. 

"People's concept of what happened is just from the movie Hotel Rwanda, it is wildly inaccurate and the person in it is not a hero. I am just trying to provide something that is more accurate." 

Christine Mcgill

Magill is working on a second book about the genocide, this time with a focus on the stories of the Canadian peacekeepers that had served in Rwanda. 

"What a lot of people don't know is that towards the end of the genocide they sent Canadian radio operators over there to establish radio communication all over the country and there was a whole group of Canadian peacekeepers that basically went into Rwanda and walked into the aftermath of the genocide and then were sent out all over the country to establish radio contact."

Magill has done several interviews with survivors with the Rwanda Veterans Association.

"A lot of them have really struggled with PTSD, so a lot of them are just kind of starting to share their stories but there's very, very little written about them."

Christine McGill Author 2

When Magill is not writing she is doing volunteer work for Alberta Youth Parliament, which is a youth government, and she also fosters dogs for Rescue Paws with Alpine Pet Spa. Magill's goal for her written work is to have the survivors of the Rwanda Genocide heard, but she added she would also like to start working on some children's books about the dogs that she fosters.  

"I think just using my writing to tell unique stories and to help share people's stories, whether they're rescue dogs or veterans, survivors, I want to use my skill set to help give people a voice and have them be heard." 

Magill will be at the Strathmore Library's first annual Local author showcase on June 3 from 1-4 pm. 

Local author

christine magill

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