Ten Percenters
Pity the honourable individual who has dedicated himself to the furtherance of a political party whose activities sometimes run counter to the human rights values of that person. He is then caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. He cannot see himself changing political allegiances, even though an alternative political party reflects in some part, his most dearly held beliefs and values. The very reputation of imputed social backwardness in the name of the other party causes him to wince in pain.When some elected members of the caucus of the Conservative-led Government of Canada thought to avail themselves of a public relations and propaganda opportunity which would effectively highlight to certain targeted constituents the public record of the past Liberal-led government and compare that unfavourably to the resolutely anti-racist policies of the current government, a great cry of protest arose from the Liberals, cowering in the basement of public disfavour.
A series of ten-percenters, political flyers, sent by Members of Parliament to a small proportion of households representing constituencies outside their own, targeted Jewish voters, inviting them to compare the voting record in the United Nations of the past Liberal government against that of the current Conservative government. Traditionally, Liberal-led governments have tended to turn a blind eye to the incessant anti-Israel libels in the United Nations. The current government refused to do so.
Tellingly, when Durban 2 was announced, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that it had no intention of offering legitimacy to the human-rights conference re-visited where Durban I turned into a riotous hate-fest against Jews, Zionism and Israel, equating all of the above with racism and genocidal oppression. In a neat turn-about of the purpose of the conference which was to point out and deplore the real racist, human-rights abuses existing in the very countries which convened the conference and targeted Israel.
The original World Conference on Racism that had its inception in Durban, South Africa in 2001, allowed Yasser Arafat to accuse Israel of supremacist colonialism and ethnic cleansing, to great acclaim. Israeli and United States' representatives stood up and walked out of the conference to unequivocally state their disgust at the circus-atmosphere of racist bigotry targeting a single country whose human-rights record is unassailable. Canada's representatives had decided to sit it out.
Acceding to the request of Israel's representatives to modify the resolution in its final form, since Canada's representatives had already decided they would stay. Demonstrating amply Canada's usual lacklustre performance in the area of protest against the violations of trust in the international forum, for its single-thrust accusation against a singular state. The issuance of the ten-percenter simply highlighted what anyone could ascertain by looking at the record.
But which caused the Liberal party to rise up in raucous agitated condemnation, claiming that those Conservative MPs were besmirching the Liberals with scandalous lies. Where Irwin Cotler, highly-respected human-rights activist, Liberal MP and staunch friend and ally of Israel, claimed that not only had the Conservatives slandered his party, but his own honest efforts on behalf of, and portrayal of Canada's support of Israel, as well.
His personal anguish and guilt over his own party's performance at Durban I gave him the impetus to mislay the memory of what had actually occurred, transforming it into one that he would far preferred had occurred. Which is most unfortunate, since Mr. Cotler insisted in defence of the Liberal party and the previous government, that Canada had remained at Durban I at the particular urgent request of Israel.
Politics is such an inconveniently messy business. But reality is what actually occurred, not what an unhappy political party representative would have preferred it to be. And the fact remains; Canada's performance on the world stage with respect to its disinterest in upholding justice by denouncing racist epithets aimed at Israel, honestly coloured the Liberals a pale imitation of defender of justice and human rights.
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Canada, Government of Canada, Heroes and Villains
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, December 01, 2009
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