Canada will boycott the third United Nations conference against racism, citing the charged anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric at its predecessors.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney at a Nov. 25 news conference said the U.N. General Assembly has chosen to “repeat and even augment the mistakes of the past” by holding an anniversary conference in New York next September, timed to coincide with the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly.
“Canada will not participate in this charade,” Kenney said. “Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it.”
He added: “We will not lend our good name to this Durban hate fest.”
The conference is slated to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2001 meeting in South Africa aimed at defeating xenophobia and racism. Canada and several other countries walked out of that meeting after Iran and several other countries engaged in Israel-bashing. — jta