Angry in the Great White North

Jason Kenney's office issued a joint announcement with Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier concerning Canada's membership in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research:

The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Jason Kenney, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, today issued the following statement:

“Canada has a long and proud history of fighting racism, discrimination and intolerance in all its forms,” said Minister Bernier. “It was for this reason, and its promise of concerted global action against racism, that we participated in the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. Unfortunately, that conference degenerated into open and divisive expressions of intolerance and anti-Semitism that undermined the principles of the United Nations and the very goals the conference sought to achieve.”

“Secretary of State Kenney and I had hoped that the preparatory process for the 2009 Durban Review Conference would remedy the mistakes of the past,” said Minister Bernier. “We have concluded that, despite our efforts, it will not. Canada will therefore not participate in the 2009 conference.”

“Canada will continue to focus its efforts on genuine anti-racism initiatives that make a difference,” said Secretary of State Kenney. “Our government’s decision to seek full membership on the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research demonstrates that we remain committed to the fight against racism and to the promotion of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law at home and around the world.”

To become a member of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research, a country must be a member of the UN, but not all UN countries are eligible to be members:

The ITF will only accept countries commonly seen as democracies (i.e. not countries with authoritarian, dictatorial, or totalitarian regimes) to full membership. However, other countries may be encouraged to develop projects in cooperation with the ITF, or agree to such projects with local NGOs.

I've more than one person suggest that the UN would be more effective if it consisted only of democracies.  A more realistic suggestion is to create a League of Democracies that could eventually eclipse the UN.

Though that might a dream that won't ever come true, the ITF is an example of an organization that screens membership in order to keep the goals of the group from being hijacked by the world's thugs.

As for Canada's participation in the ITF, that process had begun long before the decision on Durban II was taken.  From June 2007, again from Jason Kenney's office:

PRAGUE, June 12, 2007 – On behalf of the Government of Canada, the Honourable Jason Kenney, Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity), today announced that Canada has taken the first step towards full membership in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research.

Secretary of State Kenney presented Canada's formal candidacy today at a plenary session of the Task Force in Prague, Czech Republic. Becoming a member of the Task Force is a multi-step process, progressing from Observer country, to Liaison country until ultimately qualifying for full membership. Today, the Task Force has accepted Canada as an Observer country.

"The Holocaust challenged in very fundamental ways the foundations of civilization," said Secretary of State Kenney. "With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism and anti-Semitism, it is critical that we learn from this terrible era in our collective history and teach our children its lessons."

The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research was created in 1998 with the goal of promoting national and international policies and programs in support of furthering understanding of the Holocaust. Members are dedicated to promoting the Stockholm Declaration through appropriate forms of Holocaust remembrance, encouraging the widest possible access to public and private archives about the Holocaust and furthering education about it. In the last six years, the Task Force has provided funding for more than 134 Holocaust-related projects around the globe including training programs, books, publications and educational material.

I don't sit on the board of the ITF, but I think it's safe to say that they must be impressed by how Canada, a mere Observer, has taken the lead in fighting anti-Semitism by taking this dramatic move to get out of the Durban II conference.  No other nation has taken this step.  The Conservative government's decision stands as a challenge to all nations to turn words into concrete action.

Hey, how about skipping the middle steps and taking Canada straight to full membership of the ITF?

Check out other entries from the Durban II category
Results will open in a new window.