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[dmbfan]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canada+boycott+Iran+speech/2022648/story.html



Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad listens to the opening statement at the 64th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2009. Canada plans to walk out on Ahmadinehad's speech to the assembly on Wednesday.Photograph by: Shannon Stapleton, ReutersUNITED NATIONS � Canada will boycott Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad�s speech at the United Nations on Wednesday, saying his outbursts about the Holocaust and Israel are �shameful.�

Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon will be at the world body to attend the opening of the UN General Assembly�s annual debate, but officials signal he and other members of the Canadian delegation will vacate the Canadian seats when the Islamic republic�s president approaches the podium.

Walking out of the chamber is seen as a strong diplomatic show of disgust at the UN � and since the chamber is generally packed on the first day of the annual summit, Canada�s empty seats will not go unnoticed.

One of the first speakers of the day will be U.S. President Barack Obama, who is making his debut address before the assembly.

�President Ahmadinejad�s repeated denial of the Holocaust and his anti-Israel comments run counter to the values of the UN General Assembly, and they�re shameful,� said one Canadian official.

�He uses his public appearances to provoke the international community, and that is why Canada�s seats will be empty.�

The gesture is a step stronger than one announced Tuesday by the German Foreign Ministry, which asked other European Union member states to walk out of the General Assembly chamber if Ahmadinejad again denies the Holocaust, or makes anti-Semitic statements.

The Canadian initiative will be welcomed by Israel, which Tuesday urged all delegates in the 192-member chamber to stay away when Ahmadinejad speaks.

�A few days ago, he gave a new speech of hate,� Gabriela Shalev, Israeli ambassador to the UN, told Israeli army radio.

�The simple fact of leaving the room during his speech, or not to be present during it, is a symbolic act.�

Shalev insisted Israel had not been asking countries to �promise� they would boycott Ahmadinejad�s address.

�We are simply reminding them of how dangerous this person and the country that he leads are,� she said.

Iranian officials said this week that Ahmadinejad intended to use his speech to offer a message of �peace and friendship.�

But Ahmadinejad sparked new outrage just last week by again calling Nazi Germany�s murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust a �myth,� then saying the angry reaction he provoked was a �source of pride� to him. His anti-Israel statements have included calling for the country � created by the UN shortly after the Second World War � to be �wiped of the map.�

Canada annually leads a multi-nation effort in the UN General Assembly to highlight in successive resolutions Iran�s poor human-rights record. The effort infuriates Iran, which pulls out all the diplomatic stops to try to block it.

On the front burner at the moment is the fate of hundreds of people arrested in the violent crackdown Ahmadinejad and his supporters ordered as opposition rose to his disputed re-election as president in June.

Among those jailed was Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, an internationally recognized documentary filmmaker, who was in the Islamic republic for Newsweek magazine to cover the election and ensuing protests.

�We remain deeply concerned by the human-rights situation in Iran, and the crackdown on legitimate democratic protests, and the arrests of Iranians and foreign nationals, are unacceptable,� added the Canadian official.

�We will continue to demand the release of those unjustly detained, including Canadian Newsweek reporter, Maziar Bahari.�

The Canadian boycott comes as the Obama administration has sought to launch a dialogue with Iran, and direct talks between the two countries over Western opposition to Iran�s nuclear program are scheduled for Oct. 1.

However, Obama officials, among them U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, denounced Ahmadinejad�s comments on the Holocaust.

Obama is expected to try to avoid Ahmadinejad at the UN, even though he said in a 2007 campaign debate he was prepared to meet personally with the Iranian leader � without preconditions.

The West suspects Iran�s nuclear program is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb, though Iran, despite being oil-rich, said it wants to produce nuclear energy only.

Canada's relations with Iran have been strained since the July 2003 death of Zahra Kazemi, a Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who died in custody after she was arrested outside a notorious Tehran prison.


� Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[cherrycoke]

I've known for quite some time that Israel has their hands in Canadian higher-ups.

America is controlled to an extent by pro-Israeli lobbiests, Canada caters to Jewish interests as well.

[Gopher]

First Tehran denies the Holocaust and calls for Israel's deletion from the map.

Then Caracas, giving the floor to Noam Chomsky, calls W. Bush "the devil."

Then Libya calls for Switzerland's destruction; then, claiming to speak for "Africa," calls the Security Council "the terror council."

Now, Tehran and Holocaust-denial, again.

What is going on in the General Assembly?

[Fox]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Well done. Canada has little hard power, but uses its soft power effectively at times.

I am not worried that these nutballs are going to gain so much influence that the UN will do dangerous things, but rather that these nutballs continue to discredit the UN so that the UN will be increasingly irrelevant. The organization already has a reputation as an impotent debating club. Having tinpot dictators decide that Quatar should be abolished because, oh, I don't like countries that begin with 'Q' doesn't worry people; worse, it makes them laugh and roll their eyes. Ahmadinejad is another such pest: a UN troll.

Ken:>

[cherrycoke]

[Gopher]

Please be specific re: "to an extent."

To what extent exactly? What limitations do you recognize, if any? Where, in your view, does American and Canadian independence from the Zionist lobby begin and end?

[Moldy Rutabaga]

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=21865030

As an update, the Canadians did indeed walk out on the Ahmadinejad speech, and apparently the gallery was half-empty.

>Ahmadinejad has repeatedly made comments denying that six million Jews were killed during the Second World War.

Whether or not Israel has undue influence in North America, I would like to think that opposing this sort of statement is justified.

Ken:>

[Kimbop]

Cherrycoke is a fool: the free world caters to the free world, and any reasonable person would know that Iran, North Korea, the taliban, or Burma's Junta deserve zero credibility. Iran is an evil regime, plain and simple. You do NOT want to visit there. Israel on the other hand has very nice beaches, bikini-clad women, and pretty good beer.

For those who don't give a darn about Israel: achmedinejad should be ignored because of his poor human rights record, false imprisonments, execution of children & gays, support for terrorists in Afghanistan.. the list goes on and on.

Iran is presently a repressive Islamofascist state; one that represses women and mysteriously imprisons and kills thousands of people for being homosexuals, or for being a Canadian journalist, in the case of Ms Kazemi. Harper stands for secularism, for tolerance; sexual and otherwise, for freedom, for multiculturalism, and if you will, for equality between the sexes.

But evil is building, and has been building for years (centuries?) that is inimical to these values, and it is not Israel or the US! Fools like Achmendinijad or Ghadafi deserve no recognition.

[catman]

Canada must be controlled by Jews now.

[ManintheMiddle]

Who would have thought when the UN was created that a decade into the new century we would still have such rampant anti-Semitism afoot in the world and even among world leaders?

But, alas, we do and why should we be surprised? Apologists for Islamofascism abound in the media and at times even on this forum. Mr. SoftDrink actually believes that qualifying his statment makes him appear reasonable in his bald and wide-ranging assertion. And so it goes.

As for me, I look forward with almost unconstrained glee at the sound of jet engines whirring on wings attached to fuselages with Stars of David insignia on them.

[mithridates]

After Ahmadinejad made a speech at the UN in 2005 he later told a group of imams that when he made the speech there was a halo of light behind him and everyone watching him was perfectly still.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNCh2VhMyqI

Yeah, lots of nuts at this year's gathering too. Canada's walk out was good, although there was no need to reference Israel - that's Ahmadinejad's favourite subject. Just decide not to attend citing that there is no reason to believe that the Iranian people chose him to represent them.

[megandadam]

[Fox]

[visitorq]