Canadian court examines genocide suspect’s speech

A Canadian court on Thursday continued hearing the word-by-word dissection of a speech in Rwandan in 1992 by genocide suspect Leon Mugesera’s, as the Federal Department of Justice pressed its case for his expulsion from Canada, the Associated Press agency (AP) reported. Counsel for the Justice Department Louise-Marie Courtemanche said Mugesera’s speech was a “thinly veiled” call for Hutus to attack Rwanda’s Tutsi minority, and frequently referred to Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) soldiers, mostly Tutsis, with a word that translated as “cockroaches”.

She also cited a passage about sending people across the Nyabarongo river to Ethiopia, which is considered by many Rwandans a Tutsi homeland, and urging Rwandans not to turn the other cheek meekly when assaulted but to hit attackers on both cheeks “so they fall to the ground”. Translation difficulties have dogged the expulsion appeal hearing at every stage of the proceedings, AP reported, quoting Mugesera’s defence counsel Guy Bertrand as saying that his client did not incite the killing of Tutsis and that isolated sections of his speech could not be understood without placing them in context.

Mugesera arrived in Canada in 1993 and faces the current deportation hearing for failing to tell Canadian officials that charges were pending against him in Rwanda.