Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Irwin Cotler's Selective Memory

Oops! Looks like Liberal M.P. Irwin Cotler may have been caught fibbing. Even as he continues to froth at the mouth over Tory attempts to woo Jewish voters via a pamphlet deposited on Jewish doorsteps pointing out that Liberals, unlike the Tories, have been lukewarm at best toward Israel, he seems to have been caught in a bald-faced prevarication. To wit: Cotler claims that he, as part of the official Canadian delegation to that international abomination, the first Durban Conference, didn't walk out of the proceedings because Israel requested that Canada remain. However, the National Post's John Ivison tells a different tale:

...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...
To reiterate: oops!

3 comments:

Jim R said...

Test comments.

Blazingcatfur said...

Irwin you bad man!

The Red Fox said...

So sad!If there was at least one lib that one wanted to believe was above board it was cotler.Even though his wifes telling the party to stuff it and him towing the party line was a warning sign.Just another party hack just following orders.