Give new racism conference a chance

By Sid Ryan

The United Nations Human Rights Council
decided last year to follow up its first World
Conference Against Racism (WCAR),
held in Durban 2001.

Canadian Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, will have carriage of the new
conference, which has been dubbed Durban II.

Arbour earned her credentials during a stellar
career that includes her time as chief prosecutor
of war crimes at the International Criminal
Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
She indicted Slobodan Milosevic, the first sitting
head of state to be brought before an international
tribunal for war crimes.

Durban II has already earned severe criticism from
Israel, the U.S. and the Harper government because
of anti-Semitic rhetoric from some government
officials at the last WCAR.

But, if you listen to the ranting of Jason Kenney,
Conservative MP and secretary of state for
multiculturalism and Canadian identity who referred
to the WCAR as a "circus of intolerance," you would
swear Arbour had gone over to the dark side and is
now actively trying to undo her life's work of
defending human rights worldwide.

There is no question Durban I had a serious
problem with respect to vile anti-Semitic rhetoric
being spewed by some participants. However, the
solution is not to try and shut down a world forum
that's intended to address human rights violations
the world over. We should be working to ensure
Durban II is a tolerant and inclusive experience for
all who seek social justice.

Listening to Jason Kenney or reading National Post
editorials leaves the impression the only issue
discussed at Durban I was the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and the subsequent walkout by Israel and a
junior delegation from the U.S. In fact, the bulk of
the first WCAR dealt with issues of significant
importance to millions of people around the world --
issues like African descendants, migrant workers,
HIV/AIDS, refugees, indigenous people, gypsies,
poverty, marginalization, and globalization.

Abandoning this country's role in shaping how the
world addresses human rights issues is a major
blow to the millions of Canadians who have fled
despotic regimes around the world. How can
a country that has lived through the shame, abuse
and violence of residential schools for native
children not have the stomach for the gut-churning
discourse that accompanies a world human
rights conference?

The primary rationale advanced by the Harper
government for boycotting Durban II is the
pre-planning committee will be chaired by
Libya. This has provided lots of fodder for those
who want to hammer away at the credibility of
Arbour and her human rights commission.

But wait a second. Yes, this is the Libya, headed
up by mass murderer and terrorist dictator
Moammar Khadaffy, that recently admitted to
blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland killing 270 innocent men, women
and children.

Yet, is he not the same terrorist Tony Blair visited
in his tent in the Libyan desert only last year?
Is this not the same mass murderer Blair embraced
and promptly sold British weapons of mass
destruction? Where was the moral outrage from
Harper's government, Israel and the Post at this
affront to human rights? Not a word of remorse
was spoken about the 270 innocents murdered by
Khadaffi in the skies over Scotland.

Isn't it curious that the U.S. and U.K. governments
embrace a known and admitted mass murderer and
sell him weapons of mass destruction, along with a
$900-million British Petroleum oil exploration
deal and we don't hear a peep?

But, place a Libyan bureaucrat on an obscure
19-member pre-planning committee for a UN
sponsored World Conference Against Racism and
the wrath of nations is brought down on the
shoulders of Louise Arbour, her human rights
commission and human rights activists
the world over.

Canada, Israel and the U.S. cannot have it both ways.
Libya is either their new-found friend on the world
stage or a pariah state led by a despotic mass
murderer. Either way, it's the height of hypocrisy to
trash Libya when it suits the purpose of shutting down
the WCAR, but remain silent while praise and weapons
of mass destruction are heaped upon the despot
because he promised not to blow up any more planes.

sid.ryan@sunmedia.ca