Canada PoliticsLiberals and Conservatives speaking out against Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s upcoming United Nations speech
Here we go again.
In its infinite wisdom, the United Nations is giving Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, yet another opportunity to address its general assembly on Wednesday — coincidentally on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.
According to the Associated Press, United Against Nuclear Iran and several prominent Jewish groups are preparing to protest at Ahmadinejad's hotel and the UN.
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In his 2011 address, according to CBC News, Ahmadinejad spent much of his time railing against the Americans.
"Ahmadinejad attacked the United States for its history of slavery, causing two world wars, using a nuclear bomb against 'defenceless people,' and imposing and supporting military dictatorships and totalitarian regimes on Asian, African and Latin American nations.
"The Iranian leader accused the U.S. of threatening to place sanctions on anyone who questions the Holocaust and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"Ahmadinejad accused some unidentified European countries of still using the Holocaust 'as the excuse to pay fine or ransom to the Zionists.' He also said any question about the foundation of Zionism is condemned by the U.S. 'as an unforgivable sin.'"
Last year Canada and about a dozen other countries walked out of the assembly as the Iranian president spoke.
In a response to an email from Yahoo! Canada News about whether Canada will boycott this year's speech, Rick Roth, press secretary to foreign affairs minister John Baird, said this:
"No government in the world has spoken more clearly and forcefully against the racist and anti-semetic regime in Tehran than Canada. And we have followed these words with tough action."
A Liberal MP is also speaking out against it.
"Given President Ahmadinejad's hateful and incendiary incitement, flagrant disregard for principles of international law, massive repression of domestic human rights, and complicity with international terrorism, providing him with an opportunity - indeed privilege - to speak to the community of nations is simply as unacceptable as it is unworthy of the United Nations," Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Irwin Cotler told the Sun News Network.
"Let there be no mistake about it: A person who pursues the most destructive of weaponry in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, who incites to genocide, who is complicit in crimes against humanity, who is engaged in a massive repression of the human rights of his own citizens, who assaults the basic tenants of the UN Charter - such a person should be the object of an indictment by this international body, rather than the beneficiary of its respected podium."
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Cotler has sent letters of protest to UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
