Canada’s Liberal and New Democrat Parties have both announced their backing for the Conservative government’s decision, last week, to bow out of the UN’s 2009 conference on racism, on the grounds that it would likely “degenerate into … expressions of intolerance and anti-Semitism.”

That determination is based, principally, on two factors. First, abiding and distasteful memories of the antisemitism which plagued the 2001 conference. Second, the fact that Libya, hardly a paragon of tolerance, is chairing the current UN review process. Also on the committee is Iran, another beacon of enlightenment.
Bob Rae of Canada’s Liberal Party said: “The first meeting was turned into a political circus, and became a platform for blatant anti-Semitism and an effort to make the very existence of Israel
illegitimate. Judging by early rounds of discussion, Durban II will be no better. The world deserves better.”

Rae urged the Canadian government to “set out an alternative course of action to try and bring international partners
together in a different forum.”

An interesting idea which the left-wing New Democrats also endorsed. “Our country can serve as a platform for a world-wide discussion committed to uprooting racism,” said a party statement.

One has to wonder whether the Durban follow-up can survive the Canadian withdrawal. After all, the US has made its unease clear and EU countries are unlikely to want to risk a repeat of 2001, particularly if a credible alternative forum is on offer.

Still, the Canadian press didn’t uniformly back the government. Here’s The Toronto Star:
“Granted, the UN’s controversial 2001 racism conference in Durban, South Africa, turned out to be an ‘ugly maelstrom of bigotry,’ as the Star pointed out at the time, tainted by ‘Israel-bashing and poisonous anti-Semitism.’ But Canada
took part, and fought vigorously, publicly and successfully to cleanse the conference’s final declaration of odious language that unfairly targeted Israel, denied the Holocaust and equated Zionism with racism.”

The National Post didn’t agree. “Let’s hope that Canada’s example inspires other democracies to follow,” said its editorial.