Hostage advocate loses cancer fight
Bonice Thomas lobbied RCMP, politicians after militants killed brother
When her brother was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines two years ago, Bonice Thomas channelled her grief into an indomitable campaign to transform how Ottawa responds when a Canadian is kidnapped abroad. She went up against the Mounties, the diplomats, the military and the politicians. She sat face to face with the prime minister, demanding better for the next Canadian family that will know her pain. She began to get traction.
Thomas did it all while saying almost nothing about an added agony, as the cancer that harassed her from the onset of her brother Robert Hall’s abduction in 2015 did its worst. That pain ended Monday night, when Thomas died surrounded by friends and family at the Sunshine Coast Hospice in Sechelt, B.C. The death announcement came Tuesday in a family statement shared by Hostage US, an advocacy group dedicated to the support of hostages and their families, which hailed Thomas as “a true maverick.”
“Together with her siblings, she crusaded for changes in national policies and sought restorative justice under the banner of the Renova Protocol — named for Robert’s sailboat and meaning to start anew, restore — so that other Canadian families will not suffer the same anguish,” the statement said. “It calls on the government of Canada to change the way it addresses kidnapping of citizens abroad, specifically the support provided to the hostage’s family and seeks support for an independent, non-government resource for the families of hostages and returning survivors.”
Thomas and her relatives were among the RCMP’s harshest critics in the wake of her brother’s murder.
They detailed the disrespect they felt in an eight-part Toronto Star investigation that revealed how Ottawa’s broken response to a kidnapping crisis left captive Canadians in danger, and their families in anguish.
Yet in her final interview with the Star 10 weeks ago, Thomas singled out the RCMP for praise, describing structural improvements in how it now interacts with families in the grip of a hostage crisis.
On Tuesday, in their statement via Hostage US, her family vowed to press onward with Thomas’s work, saying, “While some changes have been made, particularly by the RCMP, several matters remain unresolved and are in active consideration with the Government of Canada.
“The Renova Protocol is Robert Hall’s legacy; it is Bonice’s legacy and her work will be continued by her family on behalf of all Canadians.”
In a note of personal remembrance, the family attributed Thomas’s uncommon courage, humility and strength of purpose to her years of experience learning from Indigenous people along B.C.’s Sunshine Coast.
“She strived to be kind to those she knew, to herself and to those places she called home,” the family said.
“The catalyst to this approach was undoubtedly the experience she had working with and befriending some of the First Peoples of this land over the years … which literally transformed her worldview. She credited those experiences as her greatest teachings.”