A Rwandan association based in Montreal is denouncing a Parti Québécois candidate who is no stranger to controversy for disputing the official version of events during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Journalist Robin Philpot, a candidate in the Montreal-area riding of St. Henri-Ste. Anne, wrote a book in 2003 that rejects the use of the term genocide to describe the massacre.
PQ candidate Robin Philpot.
(Radio-Canada)
In Ça ne s'est pas passé comme ça à Kigali (It didn't happen like that in Kigali), he contends that official accounts that 800,000 Tutsis were killed by the Hutu majority are exaggerated.
Interviewed this week by Montreal newspaper La Presse, he stood by his remarks.
"We can't say that there was a genocide in Rwanda like there was a genocide against the Jews," he told La Presse. "That wasn't the case."
Philpot's arguments have rankled Callixte Kabayiza, head of Friends and Family of the Rwandan Genocide group.
It's "hard to imagine" that the PQ, or any other party, would have in its ranks someone who would deny what happened in Rwanda, said Kabayiza, a Tutsi who lived in Rwanda during the atrocities.
La Presse reports that Philpot claims in his book that there were several massacres committed during the conflict, but that all sides took part in the atrocities.
Boisclair condemns comments
Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair, who met victims of the Rwandan genocide during a visit to neighbouring Burundi in the early 1990s, spoke at an impromptu media scrum Thursday morning to condemn Philpot's views.
"I feel that we cannot play with the word genocide," Boisclair said. "It's clear to me that there has been there a genocide."
Philpot issued a media release Thursday claiming he never said the situation in Rwanda was not a genocide.
Boisclair said he won't make a decision on Philpot's fitness as a candidate until he has had a chance to speak to him personally.
| Party | Elected | Leading | Total | Vote Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIB | 48 | 0 | 48 | 33.08% |
| ADQ | 41 | 0 | 41 | 30.80% |
| PQ | 36 | 0 | 36 | 28.32% |
| QS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.65% |
| GRN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.89% |
| OTH | 0 | 0 | 0 | .26% |
| Last Update:March 27, 12:52:21 AM EDT | ||||
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