Uh, Oh, Shame On You, NDP

The government of Canada made its decision, to withdraw from participation in what is being billed as Durban II to take place in Geneva in April next year. The United Nations' second conference on racism. Apprehending that, given the leadership on this issue, and having previously experienced the moral contretemps that resulted from the original UN Human Rights Commission conference on racism, Canada's Conservative government has eschewed its presence there.

The committee tasked with (gleefully) drawing up the agenda is chaired by that exemplar of human rights, Libya, the vice-chairmen being drawn from those other champions of human rights, Iran, Pakistan and Cuba. All of whom deplore the contumacious human rights violations which take place as a matter of daily course in Israel; but then, what can you expect from Jews, to begin with? Chuckle.

Good plan, fellas, to hold those meetings on Jewish high holidays, Yom Kippur and Passover, ensuring no Israeli presence. As though they would dare to flaunt their presence at such a signal event, and in the process flout the procedural antecedents being set up. Set up, that's a good one. Good agenda, too.

Question: What's the definition of the Jewish state? Answer: racist, discriminatory, xenophobic, intolerant, oppressive. You get the picture.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - and that stalwart upholder of human rights everywhere in the world, especially in Israel - Louise Arbour, have pledged their honourable assurances that this second of the UN's human rights conferences will not be permitted to degenerate into a free-for-all for the world's anti-Semites to express their considered opinion of Jews.

And Canada's New Democratic Party has decided to trust in these assurances. To the credit of the Liberal party of Canada, their foreign affairs critic has stated he has no reason to feel this upcoming conference will not be a shamefully riotous clone of the previous one. They're supporting the government's original decision to stand down.

Of course there won't be a Yasser Arafat to declare before the session that Israel represents a "colonial racist plot of aggression ... laying hands on all that is holy", but rest assured, there will be more than ample alternative speakers eager to lend their convictions of anti-Semitism to the gathering, laying it out like it is; the UN body and its trustworthy luminaries of human rights disparaging Israeli abuses.

So why, exactly, is Canada's third-in-voters'-esteem party so eager to pledge themselves to overturning the government's decision on attending the conference? Certainly the leaders of Canada's Jewish community are confused by this turn-about. "It's beyond my understanding - a betrayal of the Jewish community and of Canadians in general" said the sadly bemused chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Canada's Secretary of State for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, minced no words in assuring that there is no chance the government will submit to the NDP's demands on this issue. "The NDP's flip flop is disgraceful. Canada's reasons for not participating are simple ... it shows all the signs that it will again degenerate into an openly anti-Semitic hatefest."

So what's up with the estimable Jack Layton, leader of the NDP? All those potential votes to be had in the large and growing Muslim population in Canada? "I'm encouraged they finally saw the light", the executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation said approvingly. He's also just incidentally a former NDP candidate.

Something's rotten in the state of the NDP mindset.