Parti Quebecois Leader Andre Boisclair says he is stunned that one of his candidates is disputing facts of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Robin Philpot, who is running in a Montreal-area riding, has written a book challenging the consensus that Tutsis were victimized by Hutu militias in Rwanda in 1994.
The book is called Rwanda 1994: Colonialism Dies Hard. It was originally published in French as �a ne s'est pas pass� comme �a � Kigali, which can be translated as: "It didn't happen like that in Kigali."
Philpot claims both sides in the conflict committed atrocities. In his book, he writes that the perception that a genocide was perpetrated against the Tutsis helps exonerate the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, which also committed mass killings.
"In none of my writings have I denied that there were mass killings, some even of an ethnic character," Philpot wrote in a 2004 comment piece to Le Devoir.
"However, I categorically reject the abusive use of the expression 'genocide.'"
In an interview earlier this week with La Presse, Philpot reiterated his opinion: "One cannot say there was a genocide in Rwanda the way there was a genocide against the Jews."
And in a radio interview Thursday, Philpot told RDI, Radio-Canada's all-news channel, that he has described the Rwandan genocide as one of the great tragedies of the 20th century but that it can't be compared with the Holocaust.
Boisclair, who was campaigning in Quebec City Thursday morning, says there is no doubt in his mind that it was a genocide that took place in Rwanda.
"I am stunned by these declarations," Boisclair told reporters. "It's clear to me there was a genocide."
He is hoping to speak to Philpot but says it is too early to say whether he will kick him off the campaign.
Also Thursday, Action democratique du Quebec Leader, Mario Dumont, announced a candidate who made light of violence against women is resigning from his party.
Dumont says he and Jean-Francois Plante both decided there's too much controversy around remarks Plante made criticizing the annual ceremony marking the 1989 killings at Montreal's Ecole polytechnique.
