In February – March 1994 , detailed reports from the Canadian embassy in Kigali meant that the Canadian government was one of the best informed nations in the world about the coming Rwandan genocide . Foreign minister André Ouellet claimed that neither he nor anyone else in the Cabinet ever saw the reports from Rwanda . On April 6 , 1994 , the Rwandan genocide began . The government in Ottawa was apparently kept well-informed about what was happening by diplomats and Canadian Forces serving as UN peacekeepers , but the genocide was not considered to be a major problem for Canada , with the Chrétien government taking the view that other powers would stop the genocide . The government first insisted in April 1994 that there was only a civil war in Rwanda , and once it became clear that genocide had begun , on May 2 , 1994 , Ouellet , speaking for the government in the House of Commons promised humanitarian aid and expressed the hope that the Organization for African Unity would do something to stop the genocide . In 2010 , the Canadian government apologized to the people of Rwanda for indifference to the genocide of 1994
Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide
Jean Chrétien