Peter d'Errico: Ignorance can't be an excuse for genocide

In Guatemala, the High Risk Court concluded a trial of former military dictator José Efrain Ríos Montt. The court convicted him of genocide and crimes against humanity for his actions against the Mayan Ixil population during Guatemala’s Civil War. It sentenced him to 80 years in prison.

The Guatemalan case is especially notable because it is the first time a former head of state has been tried for genocide by the state's own judicial system. This is a very high signpost about the boundaries of the law, notwithstanding the fact that there is an appeal process that will allow Montt to challenge the conviction. Criticism of the decision by current Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, who said that there was no genocide during the civil war, only adds to the status of the case as a boundary-marker, because Molina also said the government will respect the outcome of the legal system.

In Canada, former prime minister Paul Martin spoke before the federal Truth And Reconciliation Commission, saying, "Let us understand that what happened at the residential schools was the use of education for cultural genocide." He added, “I talked to a number of people here, to a number of members of Parliament and the question we asked ourselves was ‘how come we didn’t know.’ What made it so we didn’t know? I still can’t answer that.”