Mr. Speaker, Parliament unanimously declared April 7 as the National Day of Reflection on the Prevention of Genocide, where we remember and reflect on the 18th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide that in less than 100 days, beginning on April 7, 1994, one million Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered, victims of a government-orchestrated campaign of incendiary incitement and unspeakable violence.
However, what makes this genocide so unspeakable is that it was preventable. No one can say that we did not know. We knew, but we did not act. As the Security Council and the international community dithered and delayed, Rwandans were murdered.
Indeed, the great tragedy is not so much how many Rwandans were murdered, but how so few intervened to save them.
And so, we promise: never again will we be indifferent to racism and hate; never again will we be silent in the face of evil; never again will we indulge mass atrocities. But we will speak and we will act to combat impunity, to promote international justice and to ensure that Canada does not become base and sanctuary for these great perpetrators of genocide. Never again.
We remember.