Canada Boycotts N. Korean Term at Disarmament Conference

Maybe, just maybe, John Baird's attack-dog sensibilities will do some good in the often mind-boggling United Nations.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has decided to take his gusto-ridden grandstanding to the world stage in announcing that Canada will boycott a United Nations committee on nuclear disarmament because it's being chaired by North Korea. The Asian dictatorship assumed control of the Conference on Disarmament on June 28, and will chair it until Aug. 19, but Canada won't be present at the talks because North Korea “is a major proliferator of nuclear weapons and its non-compliance with its disarmament obligations goes against the fundamental principle of this committee,” said Baird. The chair of the committee rotates among its member states, so Baird said Canada would seek a way of changing that practice to avoid those committed to the antithesis of the committee's mandate from leading it.