Time Immortal

September 11th, since 2001, has always seemed to bring out the raging anti-Semite lurking none too far beneath the skin of many on the Left.

To briefly give example to this observation: blogger Canadian Cynic noted his belief that Stephen Harper has been ‘bought’ by the Jews, and just for good measure threw in a snide reference to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Cyinc’s exact comment on Harper, by the way, began by noting that, “Jewly speaking,” (wtf?), Harper had been an excellent investment (screenshot at that link, by the way).

It gets better, with commentators adding their own $0.02 with such pearls of wisdom as:

Who knew it was such a doddle to get ’s highest honour?

“I luz Isreeal!” Now give my my award and make it snappy.

And:

Can we just round these people up and put them in camps where they can’t do any more damage?

And sure enough, there’s no resisting the lure of a Godwin violation:

Josef Goebbels Stephen Taylor must be so proud

Even Dr. Dawg, another lefty blogger and supposed champion of human rights, thinks this is the cat’s meow:

Rock on, CC, and damn the torpedoes.

It’s really quite incredible. Scratch a leftist, find something truly ugly lurking beneath the surface. All that prattle about human rights and equality is, evidently, just so much pretense.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

I would agree that protestors chanting “Death to Jews” and “Viva Jihad” are not a good thing at all. I would agree that Canada is not a place where Islam and its bigotries should be tolerated.

But I would not agree that these protests — ugly spectacle that they were — should be met with hate crimes prosecution. Even the charge of incitement doesn’t quite stick, because violence didn’t actually break out.

That said, I’d be somewhat more ambivalent if the authorities managed to take down the names of those chanting anti-Jewish slogans, and just happened to decide to deport any of them who happened to be here on student visas. They’d still be allowed to say their filthy statements, but there’s nothing to say that Canada has to provide them with the soapbox they’re looking for.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

And a good thing it is that we did. In theory, the Durban conference is supposed to be a “World Conference Against Racism“, but in practice it turned into an exercise in the very thing it purportedly was convened to oppose.

The so-called Durban II conference “has gone completely off the rails” and Canada wants no part of it, said Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity.

“Canada is interested in combatting Racism, not promoting it,” Mr. Kenney told The Canadian Press. “We’ll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance.

“Our considered judgment, having participated in the preparatory meetings, was that we were set for a replay of Durban I. And Canada has no intention of lending its good name and resources to such a systematic promotion of hatred and bigotry.”

The 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban turned into “a circus of intolerance,” Mr. Kenney said.

One government official on Wednesday called the conference “a gong show.”

Arab and Muslim countries ganged up in their criticisms of Israel. Israel and the United States walked out in protest; the Liberal government of the day remained in an effort to decry the attacks.

With Libya elected to chair the next gathering, Cuba appointed vice-chair and rapporteur, and anti-Israel rhetoric and actions building, Mr. Kenney said his government was left with no choice but to abandon the preparatory process for the followup meeting.

Canada applauded the government, saying Durban I “degenerated into a hate-fest directed at Israel and the Jewish delegates attending the conference.”

The group’s executive vice-president, Frank Dimant, said Ottawa has acted “clearly and decisively by refusing to participate in a venue that pays lip service to anti-racism but in fact provides a platform for the promotion of hatred and bigotry.”

You know, it really is so true, what RightGirl notes: every day that we have a Conservative government, Canada embarrasses me a little less. That’s not to say that ’s government has a perfect track record (far from it, to be sure!), but it is to say that I can’t recall times under past Canadian governments in which I have felt genuine pride at being Canadian. All too often under the Liberals, it seemed that the definition of what was Canada consisted of little more than syncophantic adoration of the UN and all its initiatives. I like that under the Conservatives, Canada is a global player that isn’t afraid to act in its own interests, or in the interests of one or two of the nations it regards as allies, even if it means snubbing other nations or transnational bodies in the process.

And this is a principled rejection that has taken place here. The UN has become the playground of thug states and third-world tinpot dictators; any organization that lets Libya (of all places!) chair a conference about human rights, racism, or pretty much any other issue is not worth the time it takes to acknowledge its existence.