Galloway blocked from entering Canada?

[faceless]

Shocking. Though it might be a load of crap - we'll see...

[faceless]

So it's genuine indeed. What gets me is that if the USA don't see him as a security threat, then why does Canada? Are they suggesting the USA doesn't know as much as them? Are they not sharing information? etc etc

[luke]

if you check the guardian

His proposed visit prompted the Jewish Defence League of Canada to write an open letter to the country's government urging it to do "everything possible to keep this hater away".

and from media lens;

US activist Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright (a retired US army colonel) were banned from entering Canada in 2007. Benjamin tells of their experience:

So, here we were at the Canadian border. The border officer checked our passports on a computer, and told us to sit down. More and more border guards gathered in a huddle, intensively discussing our situation. Then they called us, one at a time, to review our "criminal records."

I was shown a two-sheet print-out that had three convictions: one for unlawful assembly at the White House on International Women's Day 2002; one for speaking out during a Congressional hearing in 2003; and one for trespassing when a group of us tried to deliver 152,000 anti-war signatures to the US Mission to the UN in March 2005. Ann was also questioned about her arrests, all of which were minor misdemeanors -- the equivalent of parking tickets -- for which she had paid fines.

How, we wondered, did the Canadians obtain these records? They told us that the information came from an FBI database called NCIC or National Crime Information Center. This database was created to assist U.S. law enforcement agencies in finding fugitives, convicted sex offenders, missing persons, and members of terrorist organizations and violent gangs. Its purpose is to track dangerous criminals, not peace activists. And Canada is the only foreign country that has access to this database.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/canada-we-come-in-peace_b_68926.html

[faceless]

Galloway has never attacked a Jew because he or she was Jewish. These defence leagues seem to want to homogenise all Jewish people into the stereotype that they all think the same thing - but if they do all think the same thing then isn't it reasonable to blame the entire 'race' for the actions of a section?

They haven't thought this through.

[reject]

I believe the Galloway story is gonna lead on Channel 4 News later

[faceless]

OTTAWA (AFP) — MP George Galloway has been blocked from visiting Canada because of his support of Hamas, which is banned here, the Canadian immigration minister's office said Friday.

"I'm sure Galloway has a large Rolodex of friends in regimes elsewhere in the world willing to roll out the red carpet for him," Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, told AFP. "Canada, however, won't be one of them," he said in an email.

Velshi said Galloway was deemed inadmissible to Canada due to national security concerns. It was an "operational decision" by border security officials "based on a number of factors, not only those mentioned in the Sun piece," he said.

Such a decision could be overturned by ministerial order, but it is not warranted in this case, he said. "We're going to uphold the law, not give special treatment to a street-corner Cromwell who brags about giving 'financial support' to Hamas, a terrorist organization banned in Canada," Velshi said.

This week, Galloway traveled to Gaza at the head of a humanitarian convoy. He praised the Palestinian "resistance" and condemned Israel's 22-day offensive launched in December, in which 1,300 Palestinians died, as "genocidal aggression." The MP also donated thousands of dollars and dozens of vehicles to the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip.

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A street-corner Cromwell? What the hell kind of government official makes such an idiotic claim?

[faceless]

On a quick search for stuff about this Velshi character, I found this article...



the last line speaks volumes - "The war on terror can never be won unless Muslims who have the privilege of living in the West stand up for civilization against the forces of barbarism and nihilism". I predict he'll be retired off with repetitive strain injury from doffing his cap to whitey...

[faceless]

Galloway: ‘This idiotic ban shames Canada’
WORLDPRESSNETWORK -
20 March 2009

Respect MP George Galloway today vowed to use “all means at my disposal” to challenge the decision by Canada’s pro-war, conservative immigration minister, Jason Kenny, to refuse him entry to the country to give a series of speeches.

Galloway is this afternoon exploring with organisers of his speaking tour and with legal advisors avenues to challenge the decision, which he brands “irrational, inexplicable and an affront to Canada’s good name”.

Galloway was not informed of the decision until after it had been given to journalists. The grounds provided by a spokesperson for Mr Kenny for the ban are that Galloway’s opposition to the deployment of Nato troops in Afghanistan make him “inadmissible” to Canada. Galloway says:

“This decision, gazetted in Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, is a very sad day for the Canada we have known and loved – a bastion of the freedoms that supporters of the occupation of Afghanistan claim to be defending.

“This has further vindicated the anti-war movement’s contention that unjust wars abroad will end up consuming the very liberties that make us who we are. This may be a rather desperate election ploy by a conservative government reaching the end of line, or by a minister who has not cottoned on to the fact that the George Bush era is over.

“All right thinking Canadians, whether they agree with me over the wisdom of sending troops to Afghanistan or not, will oppose this outrageous decision. On a personal note – for a Scotsman to be barred from Canada is like being told to stay away from the family home. This is not something I’m prepared to accept.”

For further information contact Kevin Ovenden: 020 7219 2874 or 07983 360 874

Ends

Notes to editors:
1) Galloway’s most recent comment on Afghanistan was to the Grimsby and Scunthorpe media group and was, “More British soldiers have now died in Afghanistan than in the whole of the disastrous war in and occupation of Iraq. And yet the Taliban are growing in strength and instability is spreading across the border into Pakistan. My heart goes out to the families of all the loved ones who have lost their lives and in particular to the families of Corporals Grahame Stiff and Dean John, the latest soldiers to lose their lives in Afghanistan. The majority of British people, the latest opinion polls show, do not understand why we have sent troops to Afghanistan. I want our troops brought home from Afghanistan now, so no more lives are lost in this pointless and unwinnable war."

2) In 2006 the President of Egypt personally apologised to Galloway after he was detained for some hours on arrival in Cairo to speak at an anti-war conference. The speaking engagement went ahead.

[Brown Sauce]

I wonder just how many editors will bother with the couple of notes at the bottom ..

[nekokate]

Found this: http://www.petitiononline.com/galcan09/petition.html

Not sure it'll be any use, frankly, but it's better than sitting on your arse and doing nothing.

I can't believe how right-wing the Canadian government is.

[faceless]

This is an interesting article because The Star seems to have made real efforts to get the whole story.

The video from Channel 4 News is uploading to youtube just now. It should be ready in a short while.

[faceless]

[Colston]

[faceless]

he's some piece of work eh? I'd not even go so far as calling him a prick - if he's the best that his organisation can come up with then I can only imagine he's a pigeon amongst sparrows.

[faceless]

In Winnipeg, Canadian Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff suggested that, on the face of it, the decision does not appear justified. But he cautioned that security officials might know something he doesn’t.

“I have never in a long life of listening to George Galloway heard a single sentence out of his mouth that I believed,” said Ignatieff. “But that’s not the issue. We let into Canada all kinds of people who say ridiculous and absurd things and Galloway has said his share of ridiculous and absurd things. The issue … is whether the security services know something about George Galloway that I don’t.

“If he’s being barred on free-speech grounds, that’s an outrage. He can come to Canada and talk rubbish all day long, as far as I’m concerned. If there’s a security threat, that’s another matter. I’ve heard no evidence yet that he presents a security threat.”

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"security officials might know something he doesn’t."

and something that American security officials don't know either...