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The Canadians of all people!
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I didn't think they had it in them.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/racism_gong_show&printer=1
Britain should follow suit.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/racism_gong_show&printer=1
Canada abandons UN anti-racism conference; Kenney calls it 'circus'
Wed Jan 23, 8:06 PM
By Stephen Thorne, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canada has withdrawn its support for a UN anti-racism conference slated to take place in South Africa next year, the federal government announced Wednesday.
The so-called Durban II conference "has gone completely off the rails" and Canada wants no part of it, said Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity.
"Canada is interested in combating racism, not promoting it," Kenney told The Canadian Press. "We'll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance.
"Our considered judgment, having participated in the preparatory meetings, was that we were set for a replay of Durban I. And Canada has no intention of lending its good name and resources to such a systematic promotion of hatred and bigotry."
The 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban turned into "a circus of intolerance," Kenney said.
One government official on Wednesday called the conference "a gong show."
Arab and Muslim countries ganged up in their criticisms of Israel. Israel and the United States walked out in protest; the Liberal government of the day remained in an effort to decry the attacks.
With Libya elected to chair the next gathering, Cuba appointed vice-chair and rapporteur, and anti-Israel rhetoric and actions building, Kenney said his government was left with no choice but to abandon the preparatory process for the followup meeting.
B'nai Brith Canada applauded the government, saying Durban I "degenerated into a hate-fest directed at Israel and the Jewish delegates attending the conference."
The group's executive vice-president, Frank Dimant, said Ottawa has acted "clearly and decisively by refusing to participate in a venue that pays lip service to anti-racism but in fact provides a platform for the promotion of hatred and bigotry."
The UN declined to comment directly on Canada pulling out of the conference, but UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said "racism is too important an issue for member states not to work out their differences."
Kenney noted important preparatory meetings have been called on Jewish high holidays, preventing Israeli officials from participating.
The UN gave planning oversight for the conference to its Human Rights Council, which has targeted Israel in 14 of its 15 resolutions charging human-rights violations in its first two years of existence.
"We've tried to influence it so that we would not revisit the overt expressions of hatred which came out of the original conference," said Kenney. "But we unfortunately ran into a brick wall.
"The process has been hijacked by those who would seek to replay the terrible experience of the first Durban conference."
Iran was named to the organizing committee, Kenney noted.
"This is a country whose government has publicly expressed its desire to eliminate the only Jewish country in the world," he said.
Furthermore, all of the non-governmental organizations invited to the first conference have been invited back to the second, including those that were at the "forefront of the hatred," some of which posted pro-Hitler posters at the 2001 gathering.
Concluded Kenney: "If we felt there was any realistic chance that Canada could help to positively influence the process, we would stay involved. . . . By making this bold decision, Canada may send a wake-up call to the Durban organizers and other countries."
Britain should follow suit.
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Comments
It is strange that Canada of all countries should pull out first. What kind of government do they have at the moment?
Israeli officials haven't been able to participate because of meetings happening on high holidays. (I imagine there weren't any meetings during Eid or on Easter Sunday...) There's a view that some countries just use the 'anti-racism' theme to gang up on Israel - and when the likes of Iran are involved anti-Israel quickly becomes anti-Semitism. The whole singling out of Israel - the world's only Jewish state whilst turning a complete blind eye to any other (and worse) acts elsewhere doesn't imply anti-racism. (Whether Israel is 'racist' is another thread but in the league of most racist states, Israel, imo is near the bottom.. but that really is another topic).
What other states do you consider racist?
I would say Israel is probably the most openly and high profile apartheid state in the world, certainly in the developed world. Many others have strong nationalistic tendencies and their incumbent governments are or border on xenophobic or racist, but "the state" is not inherently racist. In intolerant or racist societies certain minorities will be discriminated against and the civil service/police etc will be dominated by a particular ethnic grouping (e.g. 1970s Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka), so you get a "subtly" racist state. Then you get fully racist states where certain groups are officially disenfranchized and oppressed, like apartheid South Africa, French Algeria, 1950s USA, or Israel. The Israeli state is inherently racist: it is an existential issue. It must exclude Palestinians from its territory, society, politics and economy to exist as it is. The Palestinians are segregated, isolated, and impoverished, denied meaningful democracy and livelyhoods and (if they survive through early childhood) forced into militarism and fanaticism. The dominant elite and much of Israeli society believes that their race/creed was promised/given certain land by God and that they can expel the infidels who live there in order to reclaim it for His "chosen people." Being one of the chosen people is not just based on religious practise but genetic/racial makeup (mother must be Jewish). Others are to be murdered, forced into exile, or walled off. If that isn't racism then I'm not sure what is.
World perspective on Israel is clearly shaped by many things - amongst which is anti-semitism - but it seems disingenuous to claim that there are "worse" racist states that people should be picking on instead without providing examples.