When former French president, Francois Mitterand said, in response to a question about his governments role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, that genocide in such countries as Rwanda is inconsequential, he was making a statement rooted in the kind of disdain with which Europeans have always regarded the African people and their lives. Mitterand who some fifty years earlier had taken part in the French resistance against Nazi occupation of his country and had witnessed the Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed in Europe, was now rewriting history, seeking to portray industrial scale mass murder and extermination of human beings as a preserve of barbaric Africans. Interaction between Europeans and the African people has historically been marked by racism and white supremacy, which still informs how African countries are treated, decades after the continent became independent. It is this same ignorant perception that often determines how political leaders in the West react to events on the continent. This mindset that attaches little value to African life was the basis of the impunity with which the French government, under Francois Mitterand, actively supported the leaders and the forces which perpetrated the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, before, during and after the crime was committed. Institutions in the West, including the news media and academia frequently publish works that seek to reinforce a racist narrative intended to diminish the humanity and dignity of the African people. After the United Nation Organisation (UNO) confirmed that genocide was committed against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in 1994 and went on to set up an international court to try the perpetrators, the world thought that the matter regarding the nature of the crime was clear-cut and had been settled. However, certain journalists and some academics in the West have, over the years, worked to advance the narrative that Africans are so barbaric that there couldnt have been only one genocide in Rwanda, as the UN and many courts of law around the world have concluded. It is from that racist perspective that they have sought to create and to perpetuate the revisionist double genocide theory. There is perhaps no single individual who has trafficked in that kind of spiteful propaganda, that devalues the lives of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, than Canadian journalist, Judi Rever. Indeed her campaign has served as inspiration for genocide deniers scattered around the world, as well as those who are still working to cause bloodshed in Rwanda. According to American journalist, Joshua Hammer, who was in Rwanda as a reporter for Newsweek magazine, during the genocide, Judi Revers brazen or gullible revisions of history found an eager audience among groups of Hutu extremists in exile, who are looking for ways to damage Kagames credibility, to minimize Hutu calpability and, --- to justify the retake of Rwanda by force. While Joshua Hammers article (New York Magazine, March 2, 2021) wasnt necessarily flattering towards Rwanda, the fact that he didnt subscribe to Revers malignant theory ticked her off. She has deluded herself into believing that she owns the story of Rwanda and no other writer has the right to touch it, especially if they dont agree with her hateful position. Its out of that twisted sense of revisionist entitlement that she lays into Mr. Hammer with an angry piece titled An intimate one sided view of Paul Kagames Rwanda in a journal of record. Judi Rever has actively used Canadian media outlets to advance her revisionism and the countrys public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has been the most frequent enabler in her quest to deny the genocide against the Tutsi. However, her appearance and interview on the French language show Bien Entendu on ICI Premiere on January 7, 2021 hosted by Stephan Bureau, caused such an outcry in Canada and beyond, which finally compelled the CBCs ombudsman, Guy Gendron to carry out a review of the conduct of the show and the broadcaster. His office had received complaints from Canadian and foreign citizens, as well as people of Rwandan origin living in Canada. The ombudsman, however, acknowledges that he was prompted to evaluate the conduct of the media organisation by the complaints submitted by Josias Semujanga, a long time professor of literature at the University of Montreal, who has written multiple books and other works on Rwanda, as well as Pascal Kanyemera, the president of Humura, an association of survivors of the genocide against the Tutsi, currently resident in the Ottawa - Gatineau region. In the course of the review, the CBCs watchdog quickly found that the host gave Rever the air time to broadcast hate without ever questioning the veracity of her claims, and only once did the interviewer feel like confronting his guest (Rever) but before she even answered, he gave the impression of taking her side. Judi Rever has, through her revisionist campaign and genocide denial, caused immense pain which continues to traumatise the survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The ombudsmans letter calls out the complicity of the Canadas public broadcaster, exposing the bias of its journalists and how they help her spread the false narrative. He points out that Stephan Bureaus interview with Ms Rever disregarded the anguish and pain it would cause to part of the audience, namely members of the Tutsi community, survivors of the genocide, living in Canada. The conduct of the interview leads me to note that Stephan Bureau adopted, from the start to finish, a benevolent attitude towards Ms Rever, and the thesis she presents----. He did not hide his admiration -----and he congratulated her, the watchdog writes. In the end the ombudsman concluded that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) interview with Judi Rever violated the principles of accuracy of journalistic standards and practice of the public broadcaster. Judi Rever isnt the first genocide denier and revisionist in Canada. German immigrant, Ernest Zundel described by the CBC as a notorious Holocaust denier who lived in Canada was never granted any interviews by Canadian media in the 40 years he resided in the country, peddling anti-Semitism and white supremacy. He resorted to publishing his own pamphlets to spread hate. Zundel was eventually extradited to Germany where, in 2007, he was convicted on crimes of racial hatred and sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum allowable under the law. Upon Zundels death in August 2017, Bernie Farber, the former chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress said that his revisionism and denial of the Holocaust brought anguish to those who survived it. Judi Rever has caused similar anguish and pain to the survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The Canadian media should treat her in the same way they treated Ernest Zundel, if they dont subscribe to Francois Mitterands bigotry.
