BBC's Lyse Doucet to deliver Dalton Camp Lecture
One of New Brunswick's most accomplished journalists is back home to deliver the Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism on Tuesday night in Fredericton.
BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet grew up in Bathurst.
Speaking to Information Morning Fredericton, Doucet said her lecture, In the Footsteps of Evangeline, will show the modern parallel between Longfellow's poem Evangeline and today's refugee crisis.
"I was once told by the head of the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees], that she regarded the Acadians as the world's first modern refugees," said Doucet, who is of Acadian descent.
"So I thought I wanted to tell a story about the refugees of centuries ago, the Acadians, and talk about the stories we write about refugees today and if and how our words can make a difference, and I believe they can."
Doucet has spent decades covering stories around the world. She played a key role in BBC's coverage of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the war in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan.
She says the current Syrian refugee crisis is one of the worst she has seen.
"This is the humanitarian issue of our time," she said.
Doucet said she's watched the Syrian crisis unfold in Syria since 2011, as the situation has become more dire.
"I have watched … year by year, as people talked about a political solution, people talked about giving aid to the refugees and displaced, but how in reality, the war on the ground just got worse."
Doucet said she believes that "words have power" as do the stories they tell, which can illuminate complex issues, past and present.
The Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism is a partnership between St. Thomas University, CBC Radio and the Dalton Camp Endowment in Journalism.
The lecture is Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in the Kinsella Auditorium at St. Thomas University.
