OTTAWA _ 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 several 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.''