Empathy: Turning Compassion Into Action

By David Johnston

Penguin Random House/2023

Reviewed by Lt.-Gen (Retired) Romeo Dallaire 

February 14, 2023

I will not be the first person to note that David Johnston is one of the kindest and best of men, but it stands to be repeated; for if anyone is to provide insights into empathy, from a position of both experience and natural instinct, it is he.

After I was medically released from the Canadian Armed Forces in 2000 due to an operational stress injury (OSI) sustained in Rwanda when I served as UN Force Commander during the horrific 1994 war and genocide, I continued to provide informal advice and counsel to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). When I was invited to join the Senate in 2005, I sat as vice chair of the Standing Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs and as chair of the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs. In short, the army may have left me, but I never left the army, nor its injured veterans.

When suicide rates among veterans of the Afghanistan campaign began to skyrocket in the mid-2010s, I recognized the signs of OSIs that require immediate diagnosis and treatment before they become potentially lethal, on par with any physical injury.

I raised the urgent need for strong leadership engagement in solving this lethal problem ravaging our injured veterans with the Chief of Defence Staff in 2013, so that we would not simply leave it to the psychologically-injured soldiers to seek therapists on their own. I was told in no uncertain terms that this was not an area of concern; these rates were on par with the civilian population, he said, and were likely due to pre-existing issues, neither solely nor directly related to operational missions. This was a problem for doctors, not policy makers.

Having been one of the first high-ranking members of the Canadian Armed Forces to publicly reveal my ongoing battle with PTSD, I was not going to take an answer like that without a fight. I reached out to the one man I knew would listen, hear, understand, and act. That was the Commander in Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), Governor General David Johnston.

Both the Governor General and his wife, Sharon, were deeply concerned about the heavy causalities as well as the toll these were taking on families. In typical empathetic fashion, the Honourable GG leapt at the opportunity to assist, and his interest and involvement were extremely helpful in moving this issue to the attention of the Armed Forces leadership.

While David Johnston has served in the grandest roles in our society – professor, university president, Governor General, bestselling author – his latest book, Empathy, is written from the perspective of perhaps his favourite role: a gentle and supportive grandfather. It is profoundly wise, and profoundly accessible.

Extraordinarily positive, though not always rosy, this is a guidebook to goodness – for individuals, communities, and nation-states. Anchored in personal and professional anecdotes, Empathy is actually a memoir cleverly disguised as a self-help book for humanity. As someone who has witnessed the most extreme consequences imaginable of the absence of empathy, I say that with both deep respect and gratitude for its practical value.

Guiding readers through life’s most difficult challenges, from family disfunction to global disasters, Johnston is unfalteringly optimistic, but never blind to harsh realities. In fact, he takes pains to list them with unvarnished clarity (as an example, the painful state of endangered species on our planet).  Still, it is Johnston’s total faith in the creative imagination of human beings to solve problems that is the core of this book. He has phenomenal admiration for human potential, exhibiting especially admirable respect for the thoughts and opinions of children and teens. He dedicates an entire chapter to reminding us to “Listen to Youth”.

‘Empathy’ is actually a memoir cleverly disguised as a self-help book for humanity. As someone who has witnessed the most extreme consequences imaginable of the absence of empathy, I say that with both deep respect and gratitude for its practical value.

With respect for what readers may not know, Johnston walks his reader through the fine points of the basics – the Rule of Law, the Golden Rule, the Hippocratic oath, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, even the Ontario Apology Act, which defines in detail that most Canadian of traits: saying sorry. He does this to fill in the gaps of what we presume we know instinctually, but often misunderstand.

Throughout Empathy, Johnston clarifies complex terms for his reader through warm personal anecdotes, guaranteeing that even young readers will feel included and informed. His section on pluralism, for example, explains its meaning through its impact on his children: “They grew to welcome divergent opinions, knowing that these were the result of different physical environments and different cultural realities. They embraced inclusivity; their hearts opened and stayed that way.”

Have you (or your children or your students or your staff) ever wondered exactly why governments don’t provide the exceptional, often life-altering, services that charities do?  In the clearest of terms, Johnston succeeds in explaining the complexities involved in one short paragraph. Similarly, Empathy demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of Indigenous history, feminism, ethics, and economics, revealed through anecdotes so engaging, you don’t even realize you’re being educated.

A natural storyteller, Johnston deftly encapsulates the concepts of empathy and charity by recalling a simple kindness on his first day at Cub Scouts. To demonstrate the value of diversity, he shares the story of visiting China with a high-level delegation including paralympic athlete Carla Qualtrough (now a federal minister), who subsequently inspired Chinese students with disabilities to engage and participate where they previously shied away.

But Johnston is far too modest to limit his stories to the personal. He also employs anecdotes from unknown Canadians (the Dalhousie University inventor whose work on the lithium-ion battery won a Nobel Prize, but whose name – Jeff Dahn – was never listed) as well as historical icons (Champlain, founder of New France) to provide pithy and crystal clear examples illustrating lessons of which we would all do well to take heed.

Beyond storytelling, Empathy provides analysis of hard evidence to explain data-driven trends and their significance to society. Johnston also throws in the occasional gentle admonishment of older generations for coasting in the status quo (for example, his bewilderment of charities who are not keeping pace with online fundraising portals such as Go Fund Me). He is not afraid to criticize the capitalist-based health care system in America, or our own country’s sometimes insufficient adherence to the greater good. But, he takes care to applaud where deserved.

Never one to simply lecture on problems without providing practical advice, throughout the book Johnston gently guides readers to simple steps that can easily become habit, and which have a vast ripple effect throughout society and the larger world.

He encourages us to see that hard questions can be answered with creativity, curiosity, and resolve; and that the means to encourage the greatest creativity is through inclusion. For Johnston, solutions come not only through the contributions of the geniuses, the high-achievers, or even those with exceptional talent. He argues the combination of education, excellence and empathy can produce much-needed innovation and a path to the greatest common good; equality and fairness, then, bring a diversity of experience and thought.

In Empathy, true to his empathetic nature, Johnston does not indulge in a straightforward memoir to regale readers with stories of his own extraordinary accomplishments (though extraordinary they are). Nor does he share the stories of the powerful (and the prosaic) for pure entertainment. He uses this opportunity to provide an easy-to-follow, step-by-step manual for good living, for the betterment of all.

Roméo Dallaire is the founder of the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security at Dalhousie University and a former Canadian Senator. He is the author of three bestselling books, including Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, which details his service as UN force commander before and during the genocide. He is currently a senior fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) at Concordia, patron of the Chaire de Leadership en Enseignement Roméo Dallaire (CLÉ) at Université Laval, and sits on the International Commission on Inclusive Peace (P4P).