Former U.S. State Department spokesman Michael McCurry said, “The most effective way to avoid the recurrence of genocidal tragedy is to ensure that past acts of genocide are not forgotten.”
McCurry was speaking in reference to his desire to see the Hollywood film Schindler’s List shown worldwide. He said these words in the White House press room in April 1994, shortly after discussing the evacuation of American nationals from Rwanda. At this time, the powers of the West still feigned ignorance about the atrocities that were happening in Rwanda.
Make no mistake that there are still atrocities happening in the world. It’s no surprise that this was the topic of several questions at the Ottawa Centre all-candidates debate at Carleton. However, in a macabre twist, I was witness to a similar brand of McCurry’s ignorance in the Conservative party candidate for my riding, Damian Konstantinakos.
Ironically, I held a copy of An Imperfect Offering by James Orbinski, as Konstantinakos proclaimed, “Canada has never abandoned a people in the face of genocide.”
The two, while both Canadian, are poles apart. One is among the world’s leading humanitarian activists and was the head of the mission for Doctors Without Borders in Kigali during the Rwandan genocide. The other refers to the riding he is running in as “the jewel we all know it can be” on his website.
Likely, Konstantinakos simply wasn’t thinking when he said it, but this is the problem. His ignorance is heartbreaking—not as a constituent in his riding, not even as some unfortunate product of partisan politics, but because of our shared Canadian identity.
He advocated for his party line of military and humanitarian intervention against ISIS, evidently ignorant of Canada’s past failures to mix the two. Canada abandoned ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda, fully aware that their genocide was taking place as early as Jan. 11, 1994.
So yes, we have abandoned people in genocide, and Rwanda is not an exhaustive list.
Though frustrated, I was not surprised as I wondered not so silently how such a candidate could be equipped to condone a military and humanitarian intervention in Syria and Iraq, while demonstrating so little knowledge of our past mistakes. How do you build a better future without knowing the past?
Where are the thoughtful humanitarian leaders of the past? At which point did party lines become more important than being a better country than we were yesterday? Maybe it was an honest mistake, but maybe those asking for the power to run this country should spend a little time getting to know it first.
