Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:47 pm Post subject: Galloway in Canada - November 2010
Tensions rise at McMaster Galloway's visit ‘degrades the university' says Jewish student group
A Jewish student group at McMaster is protesting a speaking engagement by George Galloway. Campus tensions are surfacing around ex-British MP George Galloway's upcoming visit to McMaster University this month.
Judy Schwartz, the director of the McMaster Jewish Students Association, said the campus group respects Galloway's right to his opinion and believes in the freedom of speech, but found it “hard to consider that any group with a conscience and who desire peace would want to have the presence of a gadfly radical like Galloway at McMaster, which degrades the university and diminishes its value. By extending an invitation to this individual, the sponsoring groups only reveal their true intentions — not real dialogue or sharing of information or educating people, but only to demonize Israel and to intimidate Israel's many supporters on campus,” Schwartz said.
Galloway was banned from entering Canada last year because of his financial support to Palestinian group Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by Ottawa. But a Federal Court ruling was critical of the government and immigration officials eventually let Galloway into the country. The former Labour member of Parliament, who is an outspoken supporter of the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict and a critic of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, is visiting 10 cities on his Canadian tour this month.
Campus groups Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), Students Resisting War and Occupation (SRWO), Independent Jewish Voices and Students for Social Justice, along with the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War (HCSW), have come together to bring Galloway to the campus in what they are calling an educational opportunity. Organizers are expecting about 600 people to attend the Nov. 21 event.
SPHR co-president Omar Saif, 20, said the purpose of the talk is to foster dialogue. “The idea is not to just bring a controversial speaker,” Saif said. "Galloway will mainly be speaking about Canada's role in the Afghanistan war, of which many Canadians are not supportive today", the third-year environmental sciences student said. "For those people who might not share his viewpoints, that's totally acceptable,” Saif said. “Even for people who want to protest him coming, at the end of the day, that's within their rights to do so.”
Schwartz said the group would not be taking any action against the talk, but there is an overall feeling of disappointment among the Jewish students. “The truth is that any time that these types of speakers come to campus … there is always a fear,” she said. But Brendan Stone, HCSW co-chair, said the event will have a question-and-answer period and they welcome people with diverse opinions to attend. “McMaster … as an academic space frequently brings in speakers that have opinions that are not always heard,” he said. “Galloway does speak for Canadians, especially about the Afghanistan war.”
The feedback they've received so far from students have been positive, said Riaz Sayani-Mulji, co-president of the SRWO. He hopes the event will get people more interested in politics, the third-year health sciences student said. “The purpose of bringing speakers like George Galloway is to inspire people to get involved … and get rid of this apathy.”
Political tensions at McMaster over the Middle East peaked two years ago during Israeli Apartheid Week, when the university banned the display of a controversial pro-Palestine banner, resulting in a protest that led to a police investigation. A university-brokered agreement called the McMaster Peace Initiative was created as a result. Signatories of the accord committed to keeping debate free, open and in a respectful, academic tone.
Schwartz, who was a signatory of the accord, said the Galloway event conflicts with that agreement. Saif, who was not a student when the initiative was signed, said student groups' ideologies can change from year to year and suggested a review and renewal of the pact. The SPHR was also not a student group at the time the Peace Initiative was created, he said. “(The agreement) almost loses its credibility if it's not renewed on a yearly basis,” Saif said.
Minister criticizes York for threatening to sue rabbi A Toronto rabbi encouraged the protest of George Galloway's speech at York University.
Kathryn Blaze Carlson,,
National Post
November 19th 2010
A cabinet minister criticized York University in the House of Commons for threatening legal action against a Toronto rabbi who encouraged non-students to protest George Galloway's speech on Tuesday night.
"We believe that all Canadians have the right to free speech, but we expect, Mr. Speaker, that universities in Canada will support free speech, not shelter from criticism those like Mr. Galloway, who says he is not in favour of free speech," Peter Kent, minister of state for foreign affairs (Americas), said Thursday.
Ontario Tory MP David Sweet had asked Mr. Kent during Question Period: "The National Post is reporting that York's president is threatening to sue a Jewish rabbi who organized a successful protest against Galloway's speech. Will the Minister remind York's administration that Jewish rabbis still have freedom of speech in Canada?"
On Wednesday, the National Post first reported that the university had issued a letter to Rabbi Aaron Hoch, warning him he could face legal action if he continued to spread "defamatory" remarks about the school's president and did not stop encouraging non-students to protest on campus. The school does not permit nonstudents to protest on campus, the letter said.
Rabbi Hoch had sent an email to 700 people on his mailing list last week about the speech by the former British MP, asking them to protest ''this outrage" on campus.
Mr. Galloway was in 2008 warned that he would be judged inadmissible to Canada because he financially supported Hamas -- the Palestinian entity deemed by Ottawa to be a terrorist group. In the House, Mr. Kent called Hamas "an anti-Semitic death cult, responsible for the deaths of countless Palestinians and Israelis."
This Peter Kent, of the Canadian government, is a rat. Galloway has often pointed out that unfettered free speech is unacceptable because it allows, for example, someone to shout 'FIRE!' in a theatre. For him to quote that out of context either speaks for the manipulation of his aides (and therefore his ignorance) or of his own manipulation, and therefore his cuntishness.
Either way, it doesn't look good! I imagine he has strong connections with the Jason Kenney cadre. The pathetic wretch.
Galloway takes shots at Harper, Kenney
Nov. 24 2010
ctv.ca
CALGARY — Political firebrand George Galloway took his message straight into the heart of Alberta's conservative country Tuesday evening and into the city represented in part by the man who earlier blocked his entry into Canada. The former British MP spoke to more than 750 people who braved the --28 C temperature to take in his speech at the University of Calgary.
His current speaking tour of Canada replaces the one he had planned for last year when he was denied entry into the country over his alleged financial support of the Palestinian group Hamas. Ottawa considers Hamas a terrorist organization.
"I'm astounded at this turnout on this bitter winter's evening. I thought I wasn't welcome in Calgary. Practically the only seat vacant in this hall is the one that we kept for the local member of Parliament," he said to loud applause. Two seats were noticeably empty. They had been set aside for federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the MP for Calgary Southeast, and a guest.
"I visited his constituency office today. He hadn't even cleared the snow and ice from the front of it. I don't know how he gets such a big vote," Galloway joked. "I went there looking for him. I'm looking for him everywhere. He doesn't answer my calls, he doesn't reply to my letters and today he wasn't there. When he banned me 18 months ago, Mr. Kenney's office said `he's not getting in and that is that.' I said it ain't over until the fat lady sings and the fat lady in question is the grand old lady of Canadian justice."
Earlier this year in Toronto, Galloway donned a pair of red mittens as if they were boxing gloves, challenged Kenney to a public debate and promised to sue the minister for slander. On Tuesday, Galloway didn't limit his barbs to Kenney. He also took shots at Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the opposition leaders over word that Canada was extending its mission to Afghanistan by another three years.
"I see that your government has broken yet another promise," Galloway said. "They've promised they would withdraw your young soldiers from this doomed and disastrous war in Afghanistan. What's wrong with this Parliament? You're paying an opposition to be the opposition but actually on such a momentus decision such as this continuing, your opposition doesn't even want a debate, never mind a vote."
Galloway said Canadian taxpayers will lose more of their "tax dollars and the lifesblood of your young men" by continuing to participate in a war that has "gone so disastrously wrong."
George Galloway makes debut in Yellowknife
CJCD Mix 100 News
November 25th 2010
Yellowknife, N.W.T. - It was standing room only at Northern United Place last night, where a popular and controversial British speaker made his first appearance in Yellowknife. George Galloway arrived in the capital city on a stop during his "Free Palestine, Free Afghanistan, Free Speech" tour, where he's speaking in ten cities across Canada.
Galloway said after discussing his views on Canada's role overseas, most of the crowd wanted to talk about local issues. "The situation of the aboriginal people here in the Northwest, drug problems, alcohol problems, housing, homelessness problems, unemployment problems, poverty problems and of course locating those problems in the context of the fact that Canada initially was a settler state itself," he said.
The former MP for Britain's Labour Party took his shots at Prime Minister Stephen Harper because of Canada's role in the Middle East, particularly with the war in Afghanistan. Galloway said the goal towards ending violence in the Middle East is bringing peace to Palestine, withdrawing troops from Muslim countries and stopping corrupt leaders from taking power in countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
He calls his stop in Yellowknife a success, saying he wanted to make it a priority to get to the North for the first time during this tour. His cross-country speaking campaign continues in Edmonton today and will wrap up in Ottawa.
-------------
From the tone of the writing, I'd guess that the writer imagines that people in the North West Territory haven't got a clue about what's happening in the world... but it's really the writer who hasn't a clue.
OTTAWA — Canada’s mission in Afghanistan has been “doomed from the start,” controversial British politician George Galloway told an Ottawa crowd Saturday.
“Does no one in Canada ever ask why the Afghanis need so much training? We have been training them for 10 years. No one is training the Taliban and they’re doing quite well,” said Galloway, a former British MP, who was refused entry by the Canada Border Services Agency in 2009 because he reportedly donated money to the Hamas-led Palestinian government. The federal government has labelled Hamas a terrorist group.
The decision to refuse Galloway entry was recently overturned in a Federal Court decision critical of the government. “Until this matter is resolved, I will be coming back again and again and again,” Galloway told his 900 listeners.
As he had in other stops on the 10-city Canadian tour, Galloway blasted Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, saying he is initiating legal proceeding against Kenney and would give any compensation awarded to the Canadian antiwar movement. He ended by urging members of the audience to call their MPs to vote against extending Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan.
Afterwards, more than 100 of the audience members marched through downtown Ottawa to Parliament Hill, some carrying signs urging an end to involvement in Afghanistan.
“It’s not a matter of parliamentary approval, but public approval. Why don’t they have a referendum?” Galloway asked on Parliament Hill. Galloway estimated that 7,000 and 8,000 people in Canada had heard him speak. “Any book you try to ban automatically goes on the best-seller list,” he said.
Only a handful of protesters have collected outside Galloway venues on the tour. In Hamilton, his speech was held up for about an hour after people were required to check their coats and bags as a security precaution. But most of the controversy in Galloway’s visit has been limited to newspaper columns and letters to the editor, some framing the controversy as a freedom of speech issue.
Others have labelled Galloway an apologist for Muslim extremists. “I despise Osama bin Laden,” Galloway said Saturday.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
