The Post editorial board: The NDP's reversal on Durban II is a disgrace

Those who thought Jack Laytons NDP was going mainstream -- opposing a carbon tax, recognizing the importance of free trade, gaining ground in Quebec -- should think again. This week, the National Post reported that the NDP is now challenging Canadas boycott of next years UN World Conference against Racism. The move sabotages the NDPs effort to convince voters that it is a serious political party -- as opposed to a pastiche of hard-left interest groups and union interests. Whats worse, it casts the NDP as an apologist for the rogue states and militant Islamists that disgraced the UNs name at the last such anti-racism confab, and are sure to do so again in 2009.

No one can say that Canada didnt give the UNs first anti-racism conference a fair shot seven years ago. In the lead-up to the 2001 "World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" in Durban, South Africa, we took at face value the stated goals voiced by UN organizers. But when our delegates arrived, they found a carnival-like atmosphere in which militant anti-Israeli -- and even anti-Semitic -- propaganda was in free circulation. Paul Heinbecker, then Canadas ambassador to the United Nations, condemned efforts by attendees to "de-legitimize the state. of Israel and dishonour the history and suffering of the Jewish people."

With Durban II in the offing, the same rogue players that turned Durban I into a fiasco are again pulling the strings. Libya chairs the committee responsible for making the preparations for the conference -- ably aided by vice-chairs Iran, Pakistan and Cuba. Naturally, the committees meetings were held on high Jewish holidays -- Yom Kippur and Passover. Faced with such developments, the Liberals joined with the Conservatives in embracing a boycott of this toxic event. So did the NDP.

But thats changed. Following on pro forma UN assurances that anti-Israel hate will be kept in check, Wayne Marston, the NDPs critic for human rights for international affairs, recently sent a letter to the Harper government. "In the light of these significant new developments," he declared, "we believe the government of Canada could now play a helpful role [at the conference]."

Why did Mr. Layton authorize this stomach-turning volte-face? There are two possibilities, we suppose. Either he had a sincere change of heart, in which case the decision betrays a shocking level of naivete. Or, it was simply a cynical bid to ingratiate the NDP with militant Canadian ethnic constituencies that share Irans and Libyas hatred of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants.

Either way, it is just more proof that Mr. Laytons party should never be trusted with any real power.

James Morton
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