Canada to boycott Durban conference

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says Canada will not attend a UN conference on racism next September because the event will be a "charade" and a "hatefest."

The conference, dubbed "Durban III," is intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2001 meeting in South Africa aimed at defeating racism.

Canada and other countries walked out of that meeting after Iran and several other countries began ganging up on Israel.

Canada was the first country to withdraw from Durban II last year in Geneva.

Kenney says the UN General Assembly has chosen to "repeat and even augment the mistakes of the past" by holding a commemorative meeting in New York next year.

He says the government has lost faith in the process, and Canada "will not lend our good name to this Durban hatefest."

Kenney says Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but he says the Durban process "commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it."