New York, New York, September 22, 2011 — Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney today condemned events to mark the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA), often referred to as Durban III.
“Today, the United Nations – an organization built on a foundation of peace and unity – will commemorate an event that was used as a platform to single out and demonize Israel. And it will be used to spread anti-Semitic views on a global scale,” Minister Kenney told a conference objecting to the events at the UN. Titled The Perils of Global Intolerance: The United Nations and Durban III, the conference was jointly presented by The Hudson Institute and Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.
“Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racial injustice, but we do not support an agenda that has been usurped by some to promote racism rather than combat it.”
In December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to hold a one-day plenary meeting this month to mark the tenth anniversary of the first Durban conference in 2001.
Minister Kenney noted that Canada’s opposition to the Durban conferences has been based on concern about expressions of anti-Semitism at the first Durban conference in 2001. This included circulation of copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and explicitly anti-Semitic symbols.
“I’m proud to say that Canada was the first country in the world to withdraw from the United Nations’ Durban Review Conference, or Durban II,” noted Minister Kenney. “We refused to participate in what was clearly a tainted process that would not address the very real problems of racial injustice.”
“The new anti-Semitism has adopted more sophisticated language. Its rhetoric is now disguised as anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Israel, but it ultimately espouses the same old hatred and intent.”
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