CANADA TO SHUN ANTI-SEMITIC DURBAN CONFERENCE

Canada to shun Durban conference (JTA)
Canada said it will shun next year's U.N. racism conference for fear it will stir up anti-Semitism.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said Wednesday that her country will not attend the 2009 conference in Durban, South Africa, where the event was held in 2001 and became a venue for a virulent anti-Israel campaign.

Canada "had hoped that the preparatory process for the 2009 conference would remedy the mistakes of the past," Bernier said in a statement. "Despite our efforts, we have concluded that it will not."

Jason Kenney, Ottawa's secretary of state for multiculturalism, told Reuters his government believes Durban will again "showcase the same regrettable anti-Semitism" and "sees no value in allowing Canada's participation to continue to dignify or legitimate such hateful and anti-Canadian propaganda."