News today that Canada is planning on boycotting the upcomming UN anti-racism conference - the so-called “Durban II”. Durban referes to the location of the first anti-racism conference in South Africa. You can read more about that here, but suffice to say that the conference was more about promoting racism than stopping it (e.g. Jews were banned from the planning sessions).
The new Durban has wormed it’s way through the UN against the opposition of (among others) Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Spain - these countries all voted to de-fund the conference. But the third-world groupings in the UN managed to force the conference through and it is set to be held in 2009.
The Toronto Star has a few words on the problems of this upcoming conference:
The upcoming conference seems to be building up to more of the same. The preparatory meetings have better venues – Geneva instead of Tehran – but the timing is a tad suspicious. The next two meetings are scheduled for Passover and Yom Kippur. The Board of Deputies of British Jews has asked for better dates. So far it has been ignored.
That’s not surprising. The Durban II chair is Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, a country that expelled its Jewish community soon after the 1967 war between Israel and Egypt, Jordan and Syria. A government that takes foreign policy out on a domestic minority does not bode well as chair for an anti-racism conference. Imagine if Canada were to deal with the People’s Republic of China by turning its sights on Canadians of Chinese heritage. Could we then qualify as host for a conference on the very anti-racism we abused?
Maxime Bernier, the Foreign Affairs Minister, is set to announce today that we’re out of the conference. I expect that to be greeted by a chorus of denunciation from certain opposition members.
This conference can be nothing other than a Jew-bashing hate fest. With Libya the organizer, Iran on the planning committee, and Jews systematically excluded, you can assume that the outcome will be something that Canada should stay the hell away from.
So a pointed question: which opposition members are supporting this anti-semetic conference and which members are opposing it.
Besides the MP’s this will be a good question to ask of Bob Rae (Liberal) and Farouk El Khaki (NDP) - both running in the spring byelection in Rosedale - one of Canada’s largest Jewish communities. More on them later.
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