Source: CNews

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/09/19/635981-cp.html

On September 20, 2004 CNews reported, "Religious conflicts are one of the biggest challenges facing the international community, Prime Minister Paul Martin said on Sunday as he prepared to head to New York City to attend the United Nations General Assembly. 'You can sit down to discuss economics, you can discuss politics and in fact, there is normally a rational background that one can approach logically,' Martin told a banquet marking an interfaith conference hosted by McGill University. 'But when religious differences are allowed to keep us apart, there is no logical way to deal with it'... With religiously based conflicts continuing in places like Kashmir, the Middle East and Sudan, Martin praised meetings that bring religious communities together... 'I hope that the discussions (going on in the conference) mean that my successor, when he or she goes to the United Nations, will not have to spend time there talking about the religious differences that keep us apart.' [Martin said]."