Last week Canada announced it was pulling out of the Durban II UN Conference on Racism in 2009. You may remember Durban I in 2001, which was overshadowed by the terrible events of September 11th. Durban I was a farce, from which both the US and Israel pulled out, where African and Arab nations used the cover of racism to criticize and demand compensation from western countries. With Libya and Cuba as the chair and vice-chair of Durban II, and Iran on the organising committee (three countries which sponsored the original infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution 3379 at the UN) it promises to be much the same.
These sort of conferences allow the intolerable situation where autocratic human-rights abusing governments lecture and admonish the west for ancient crimes real and imagined (but not give credit for positive action like the Royal Navy's ending of the slave trade). Having western governments attend only gives them credibility and someone to shout at. This is why I am so proud of Canada's Conservative government, which is motivated to actually end real racism and not attend conferences for the sole purpose of being lecture on dubious interpretations of our past by hypocrites. I hope Britain and other western countries will follow suit.
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