Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for inviting me, and thank you for looking into this very important issue that's often ignored. I was able to travel to Rwanda last year. I had been there a few times before to teach journalism, but this time I went as a journalist. I applied for and received funding f

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, that's the number I have as well, 20,000. I certainly didn't see all 20,000, but in the villages I did visit, when I met with these people, there was quite a large group each time. That seems to be the accepted number. Of course, it's always impossible to know. They even arg

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As an example, one woman I met with was actually doing quite well. Her husband had been killed and she was taken hostage, I guess, or taken as a prisoner by the Hutus and repeatedly raped while her five-year-old daughter was raped in the next room. She could hear the daughter bei

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The women in Rwanda?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, maybe I was a bit harsh. They have their memorials every year and the line is, “We're all Rwandans.” There's no.... Everybody repeats that by rote, but there are still these divisions because certain things haven't been dealt with. There are many Hutus who were killed but h

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  To answer your first question, there are a lot of survivors here in Canada, mostly in Montreal because of the French. I'm friends with a number of them. I think in a way they do better when they're here because they're not reminded of it all the time, and they're kept busy just t

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Right.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  —like we've seen with Holocaust survivors. It goes on for probably three or four generations.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In Canada, with survivors here?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, and they risk passing it on to their—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I know that the government used to provide psychological services for newcomers and new refugees, but I think that's been cut like a lot of services. I think survivors here who are looking for psychological support have to go through the same channels as the rest of us.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There are organizations in Quebec, for example, Page-Rwanda, that help. They have brought all the survivors together and videotaped their experiences and established sort of a library in Montreal of all the experiences. It is just a room in some building, but you can go there and

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, for sure.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would say that the best way to improve their lives is through education. Every single one of them I talked to, not just the children of rape but the orphans of the genocide too, wants to go to school. They would love to go to university and get an education, but there is just n

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would say yes, because some of them have never received any kind of psychological support. They could use some therapy, which is what my friend Ganza is trying to do—he is Rwandan—with his Best Hope Rwanda, in bringing the women and their kids together to talk about how they're