Between Good and Evil

with Mellissa Fung

Hosted by Lisa LaFlamme In Person Politics Non-Fict History

Wednesday

Apr , 2023

7:00pm

Eastern

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Lisa LaFlamme · Photo by Ted Belton Mellissa Fung · Photo by Jane McLeish-Kelsey

Between Good and Evil is breathtaking and heartbreaking and, for better and worse, deeply human… This work is important and astonishing, but it is also a riveting read.

Louise Penny

PLEASE NOTE: For the safety and comfort of all patrons, masks are required to attend in person. Ticketholders unable to attend in person may request a link to the livestream. .

Join our host, Lisa LaFlamme for an intimate conversation with author and journalist Mellissa Fung about the mesmerizing true story of the Nigerian girls taken captive by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

In April 2014, the world awoke to the shocking news that the terrorist group Boko Haram had kidnapped nearly 300 school-aged girls and taken them deep into the forests of Nigeria. When veteran journalist Mellissa Fung travelled to Nigeria, she discovered that the scope of the kidnappings had been vastly under-reported. Hundreds—possibly thousands—more girls had been taken against their will and forced to become child brides to soldiers and leaders of Boko Haram. Some of the captives escaped and returned to their villages, many with children in tow. Most of these girls, still children themselves, were shunned by their former friends and family. Other girls have never been seen again.

A former captive herself, Mellissa Fung has great empathy for the kidnapped girls. Taken by Taliban sympathizers in Afghanistan, Fung shared her experience in her number-one-bestselling book, Under an Afghan Sky: A Memoir of Captivity. During several visits to Nigeria over four years, she sat down with the girls and their families and conducted hundreds of hours of interviews, listening to horrific stories of capture, rape and torture, as well as escapes and excommunications. Fung tells the stories of Gambo, Asma’u, Zara and other girls taken by Boko Haram. She also portrays strong women fighting against the terrorist group in their own powerful ways: Aisha the Hunter, who moves stealthily into the forest, taking out Boko Haram with her faithful followers, and Mama Boko Haram, an Igbo woman who knows the fighters and those haunted by their experiences and fights to empty the forests of fighters and captives alike. This is raw, honest and heartbreaking storytelling at its best.

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The Authors

Lisa LaFlamme

Lisa LaFlamme has been at the forefront of journalism for over 30 years tackling some of the biggest issues of our time, traveling the globe, delivering breaking news and bringing it back home to Canadians. The internationally respected journalist has interviewed major newsmakers, Prime Ministers, Presidents and Princes while always keeping the spotlight on the injustices that plague the world’s most oppressed. LaFlamme has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous places and through her extensive war coverage of Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine has documented the reality of how conflict warps society, punishes the most vulnerable and benefits the most corrupt. A native of Kitchener-Waterloo, in 1988, LaFlamme began her career in local radio and TV in her hometown before making the move to CTV National News in 1997. She moved from Prime Time anchor of CTV Newschannel to an Ottawa correspondent in CTV’s Parliamentary bureau. In September 2001, LaFlamme became co-host of the number one morning show Canada Am. Her second day on the job, 9-11, the attacks on the World Trade Centre pulled her out of the studio once again to report from New York City, the United Nations, the Pentagon and ultimately Iraq and Afghanistan. For more than a decade LaFlamme went from conflict zone to disaster zone delivering award winning coverage of hurricanes, earthquakes and climate crises including Southeast Asia in the wake of the deadly 2005 tsunami and Japan’s devastating nuclear emergency in 2011. That same year she was named Canada’s first female anchor of a national nightly newscast replacing longtime anchor Lloyd Robertson. As Chief Anchor and Senior Editor of CTV National News for almost 12 years, LaFlamme led the country’s number one newscast and cemented her role as the face of news in Canada. During her career, she has received critical acclaim for her live special broadcasts from around the world marking moments in history from Royal weddings to funerals, major political upheaval at home and abroad, the rescue of the Chilean miners, the opioid crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing resilience of refugees. LaFlamme has reported extensively on the humanitarian crisis facing the Afghan people and has worked intensively on helping Afghan women and girls under threat by the Taliban. The veteran journalist is the recipient of 12 Canadian Screen Awards, consecutive RTDNA awards a Lifetime Achievement Award for broadcasting and journalism and in 2023, The Gordon Sinclair Award for her “exceptional body of work in broadcast journalism.” Over her career she has received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater University of Ottawa, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. and the University of Windsor and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Trent University. She is the recipient of the Order of Ontario and in June 2019, was named Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.), one of the country’s highest honours. A passionate advocate of democracy in journalism, LaFlamme volunteers for Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) and has traveled with the organization to the Democratic Republic of Congo to mentor young journalists in Goma, in the heart of the conflict zone. She serves as honorary co-chair of the annual JHR Night for Rights and in 2022 was awarded the JHR award for Human Rights Reporting. Lisa is also an ambassador for Plan International and volunteers for Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan.

Mellissa Fung

Mellissa Fung is a veteran journalist, bestselling author and filmmaker. In 2008, as a field correspondent covering Afghanistan for the CBC, she was taken hostage, an experience that led to her number-one-bestselling book Under an Afghan Sky. Her story, and those of three Nigerian girls, were the subject of her first feature documentary, Captive, which premiered in 2021 and has been nominated for several major awards. Since leaving the network, Fung has focused on human rights reporting. Her work has been featured in the Globe and Mail, the Huffington Post, the Walrus and the Toronto Star, and on Al Jazeera, CNN, PBS and other media. She has received numerous awards, including the Gracie Award, a Commonwealth Broadcasting Association award and the New York Festivals Gold and Silver Awards. Mellissa Fung holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.