J. Paul Richards has witnessed unimaginable human cruelty. Yet he knows that surviving is just the first step. In the aftermath, the real work begins: the call—the moral duty—to remember. 

As a boy, he first encountered what it meant to stay in the room when pain entered it. Paul’s father had just come home from the hospital legally blind and unable to write, telling his son it would be better for everyone if he were dead. 

Paul has stood beside suffering ever since, dedicating his life to service at home in Canada and abroad. Richards has worked in law enforcement in remote Canadian communities, investigated war crimes, exhumed mass graves in Kosovo, deployed as an intelligence officer to Afghanistan, and served as a coroner. After ordination to the Anglican Church of Canada, he carried medical supplies into Ukraine beneath air raid sirens and continues this outreach today. 

What Remains is not a war memoir, and it is not a story of heroism. It is an unflinching account of moral injury—the wound that comes not from physical danger but from what conscience must absorb—and of the long aftermath that follows bearing witness to pain and atrocity. Richards writes for those who have had to work alongside human suffering while remaining present: soldiers and veterans, police officers, paramedics and nurses, chaplains, social workers, and the families and loved ones who carry the aftermath alongside them. 

Written with restraint rather than spectacle, What Remains is an invitation to find clarity in discomfort, compassion without illusion, and the strength to remain engaged when turning away would be easier. 

What remains, in the end, is not certainty. It is responsibility. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. Paul Richards is a Canadian law enforcement veteran, international investigator, Anglican priest, and humanitarian volunteer who has spent his career working to serve remote communities, facilitate postconflict investigations, and support veterans’ initiatives. After decades of working in regions affected by war and mass violence, he continues to assist veterans and families impacted by conflict, both at home in Canada and abroad. His current work is dedicated to supporting communities in need in Ukraine, with a particular eye to the long-term human consequences of violence—moral injury, memory, and the responsibilities that endure after institutions move on. What Remains is his first book.