Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Canada to Boycott Ahmadinejad Speech at UN

Once again, Canada shows leadership on the Iran issue. The Globe and Mail reports that Canada's representative will walk out of the Iranian president's speech at the UN today becasue of "Mr. Ahmadinejad's “shameful” comments attacking Israel and denying the Holocaust." Kudos to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for having the courage to stand up to a bully.

Now, I wonder if President Obama will be in his seat for the speech? His record of appeasing dictators is getting worse and worse. He claims that his "engagement" is a superior foreign policy to Bush's "confrontational" one, but tangible results demonstrating that superiority are pretty difficult to see.

Canada's action is only symbolic, of course, but at least it shows the thuggish regime in Tehran that other countries in the world recognize it for exactly what it is. Somewhere in a dingy cell in a basement in Iran there may well be another Solzhenitsyn wondering if anybody out there cares enough about the people of Iran and their freedom to speak up. As of today, Canada does. Maybe tomorrow the world will join us.

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