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Posted (edited)

Conservatives evoke both chuckles and vitriol in their use of "Truth Ads" - the ability to reach back in history and poke the Liberals in the eye using their own actions and words. They've done it over and over again with Ignatieff. Unfortunately, Irwin Cotler - a well-respected parliamentarian by all parties - has been caught trying to re-write Liberal history. The recent dust-up over Householder 10%ers brought into focus the Liberal performance at the horrendous Durban 1 Conference. Conservatives said that Liberals willingly participated....Cotler said Israel asked Canada to stay. Here's a recent column by John Ivison that puts history in perspective.

This is not a defence of 10%ers - the rules for which should be changed.

Liberals claimed victory, but perhaps their triumph is premature. As the Speaker himself admitted before his judgment, he is not charged with determining the facts in a case like this. Perhaps a dispassionate examination of what actually happened is in order.

Mr. Cotler's case rests on his contention that Canada was asked to stay in Durban by the Israeli government, after Israel and the United States walked out. As he told the House last week: "The conference turned into a conference of racism against Israel and the Jews. That is when we stood up, that was when we were asked to remain, and that is what we did. We were praised for having been the party that most condemned anti-Semitism at that Durban 1 conference."

However, that is not the recollection of Alan Baker, Israel's former ambassador to Canada who was head of the Israeli delegation in Durban. In an interview from Israel, he said that his government asked Canada, the U.S. and a number of European countries to pull out of Durban but the Canadian delegation was directed by Ottawa to stay. Led by Secretary of State for Multiculturalism, Hedy Fry, and then ambassador to the U.N., Paul Heinbecker, the delegation was told to attempt to ensure the text of any final declaration was devoid of anti-Israel language.

Mr. Cotler himself seems to have been less than impressed with the Canadian government's decision. On his return, he gave a speech in Montreal in which he said he felt that by remaining at the conference until the declaration was adopted by consensus, Canada had made itself party to it, despite subsequent attempts to disassociate itself.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Cotler agreed he was not in favour of Canada signing on to the final resolution. But he said he was asked to stay on in Durban by Rabbi Michael Melchior, who was Israel's deputy foreign minister at the time. "I was a member of the delegation and supported the delegation in the position it took until the last day when it came to the consensus resolution, which I was not in favour of," he said.

Mr. Baker's explanation for the apparent inconsistency between his request for Canada to pull out of Durban and Rabbi Melchior's request for Canada to stay is that in between the two appeals, the Liberal government had already indicated it intended to stay.

"No inconsistency was possible [between himself and his deputy foreign minister] because my instructions came from Melchior, who asked me as the person on the spot to persuade the delegations to walk out. We tried to get the Canadians to walk out but when it became clear they were going to stay, we asked them to try to work from the inside."

It all suggests that there is some re-writing of history in Mr. Cotler's assertion that Canada stayed in Durban at the request of the Israelis. The decision to stay seems to have been made before any such request was forthcoming, which validates the claim that the Liberals were "willing participants" in Durban.

Link: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/11/30/john-ivison-cotler-s-version-of-durban-doesn-t-wash.aspx

Edited by Keepitsimple

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Posted

Hi Keepitsimple,

Thanks for posting this. I remember Irwin Cotler being on CBC (I am generally prejudiced against left-leaning Jewish politicians) defending Canada's decision to remain at the anti-semitic Durban conference. This was in response to a recent series of mailings from the CPC to Jewish constituents which implied that the Liberal Party is weak in its opposition to anti-semitism and weak in its support for Israel. I agree with the CPC's suggestions - the Liberal Party is weak in this regard. I remember Cotler claiming that Israel had asked Canada to stay at the conference - which I found hard to believe. Thanks for exposing this shill for his lies. I can't stand when Jewish politicians (definitely more than half of them in Canada and the USA) sell out Israel for their own left-wing politics. Rather than tell the truth about his party's errors and showing integrity (by perhaps promising to improve itself going forward), he lied about what happened in order to defend his party at the expense of more important principles. Shameful. Although I would never suggest that my being Jewish permits me to denigrate Jews, I am generally leery of North American Jewish politicians. Even in Canada, Jews historically vote strongly for the Liberal Party, beyond the national average. It's really sad. It looks like Harper is effectively changing this trend.

Just for anecdote's sake, we can contrast the Liberal party's decision to have Canadian representation at the anti-semitic Durban conference, enhancing its legitimacy, to the CPC's decision to walk out of Ahmedinejad's latest anti-semitic, anti-Zionist, Holocaust-denying tirade at the UN. That's just one example of how the CPC is a stronger supporter of Israel than the Liberals.

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