Canada boycotts Durban commemorative event

The Government of Canada has announced it will not participate in the events to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) in September 2011. Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said, “Our government has lost faith in the Durban process. We will not be part of this event, which commemorates an agenda that promotes racism rather than combats it.”

In 2009, Canada was the first country to boycott the Durban II conference. Other countries — including the United States of America, Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, and most of the European Union — followed Canada’s lead. Canada's principled stand last year was vindicated when Durban II was used by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the only head of state to attend, as a platform for Holocaust denial and xenophobia. The 2009 conference was a follow-up to the first conference held in 2001. At the 2001 Conference anti-Israeli documents were distributed, including pictures of Hitler and the Chronicles of the Elders of Zion.

Canada will not lend its good name to the organized exercise in “scapegoating” that is the Durban process—it is a “hatefest,” said Minister Kenney.