Galloway blocked from entering Canada?

[VivaGalloway]

Canada's politics is fucking disgusting. It's like America-lite.

[luke]

Canada can't muzzle me
To ban me from the country for my views on Afghanistan is absurd, hypocritical, and in vain

The Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney gazetted in the Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the rightwing, last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business.

Kenney is quite a card. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-western Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all, in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so-called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organisation. On one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Conrad Black. On another, for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.

But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government does not want its people to hear? I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters", paraded at US Republican and British Tory conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of communism. I did not, however.

On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". With the same conviction, I say to the Canadian and other Nato governments today that your policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop, which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.

The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan's plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for troops - British, Canadian and other - means bringing them home and changing course.

To ban a five-times elected British MP from addressing public events or keeping appointments with television and radio programmes is a serious matter. Kenney's "spokesman" told the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in ... end of story." Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review. And there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me.

More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17-minute telephone concert, culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill. Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard - one way or another.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/21/george-galloway-canada

[faceless]

ha, the gloves are on - though on last night's show I got a hint that GG was getting tired of these big battles.

[Colston]

[luke]

Intellectual Protectionism

I am stunned by Canada's decision to ban George Galloway from entering the country. I have known George for too many decades to share in the hero-worship he attracts from some; but he is a truly talented speaker and debater. George was right on Iraq when so many Western politicians hid behind the coward's shield of patriotism. He is right on the disaster of Afghanistan too, the full horror of which is still unfoldng. I see that three more Canadian soldiers were killed there yeasterday, and nine maimed. The kind of debate George brings is urgently needed in Canada.

I was also surprised by the Canadian government spokesman's description of him as an "Infandous street corner Cromwell". Cromwell was a truly great man, a towering figure, with a driving concern for the common good. His statue stands guard outside Parliament. A peculiar comparison indeed.

Canadians should be ashamed today. George has fallen foul of the trick by the Israeli lobby of tarring everybody sympathetic to the Palestinians as a terrorist.

There is a spirit of protectionism abroad in these troubled times - of intellectual protectionism. As the frailties of an economic system built upon unrestrained greed and speculation become clear, as it becomes more and more obvious that recent Western invasions of Muslim lands are a drive to corner key areas for access to increasingly scarce hydrocarbons, and as the spectre of climate change looms over everything that was viewed as "Progress", governments are desperate to control the narrative thier population hears.

The British government banned Geerst Wilders and several Muslim theologians. Canada is banning George Galloway, of all people. When the British banned the Dutch MEP Wilders, the Dutch government commendably supported the right to free speech in Europe and the Dutch Ambassador offered to meet him at Heathrow. The British government should make Canada know of our displeasure at the banning of somone for voicing opinions which are held by a large proportion of the British nation.

Fat chance.

from http://www.craigmurray.org.uk

[faceless]

CBC (Canada) tonight.

[faceless]

[faceless]

I Won't Be Silenced By Canadian Tories
Mar 23 2009
George Galloway
dailyrecord.co.uk

BEING called a "street corner Cromwell" might in Galway or Cork be quite an insult. But even Jade Goody might have known that Oliver Cromwell is principally remembered as the champion of parliamentary supremacy and the hammer of autocracy and arbitrary power. Yet that was what I was called by the spokesman for the Canadian government in their banning order issued to stop my addressing church and peace groups in Toronto.

I speak in Canada regularly and without incident of any kind. Suddenly I have become a "security risk" for the minority and discredited Tory government in Ottawa. Claiming to be fighting for freedom and liberty up the Khyber Pass, they seek to prove it by shutting down freedom and liberty at home. It was ever thus.

Scots built much that was good in Canada and our cousins there are not best pleased at my ban. The substantial ethnic minority population too - Toronto is the world's only city where the minorities are the majority - who would have constituted much of my audience are incensed. Even right-wing libertarians can't stomach this political misuse of the "war on terror" to try and silence a five-time-selected British parliamentarian.

And my crime? To take an aid convoy of ambulances, fire engines, children's nappies, wheelchairs, food, medicine and blankets to the besieged and wartorn Gaza strip and hand them over to the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people.

As it happens, I'm not a supporter of Hamas, as you've heard me say many times before. All my life and to the last days of his, I was a friend, comrade and confidant of President Yasser Arafat. I am a supporter of democracy, and recognising the rights of people to choose their governments. The reason Gaza is besieged is to punish the people for voting the wrong way. I cannot be a party to that. I'd be surprised if the majority of Canadians could either if only they knew that's what is happening.

I wanted to so persuade them. And that's why, for now, I've been declared "inadmissible". Of course, the audience for what I would have said is now vastly greater than before the blundering flatfooted immigration minister stepped in. But I warn him, I always get my man. Just ask ex-Senator "Norm" Coleman.

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United States

BY the time you read this, I will be on a plane to the United States to begin my speaking tour there. I will criss-cross the land of the free, home of the brave, from sea to shining sea. At least that's what my travel agent says. Let's see if the Homeland Security agents see it the same way. Next week I will be reporting from Arkansas. Or Auchtermuchty. Watch this space.

[major.tom]

I've been mum on this story. Not, I'm sure you'll all recognize, because I approve of this stupid and cowardly decision. But more from embarrassment at the state of Canadian politics; more afraid of ideas than even Egypt or Iran.

I'm dearly hoping that one day GG gets the opportunity to serve up Stephen Harper (a fish so cold he shakes his kids hands to send them off to school) much like he did Ex-Senator Norm Coleman (the camp-stove that ran out of gas).

[luke]

we're holding you personally responsible for all this major!

hows it playing in the media over there?

[faceless]

Abousfian Abdelrazik
While George Galloway's ban from Canada makes headlines, a Canadian citizen has been banned from re-entering his own country.
By Sandro Contenta
GlobalPost
March 24, 2009

TORONTO — By now, many around the world have heard that provocative British politician George Galloway has been banned from entering Canada. Practically no one, by comparison, has heard of Abousfian Abdelrazik. Yet most of those who have would argue that Abdelrazik's case is far more outrageous.

Galloway, dubbed “Gorgeous George” for his fashion flair, is the sole member in the British parliament of the anti-war group, Respect. An uncompromising left-winger, he was thrown out of the Labour Party in 2003 for emphatically opposing the invasion of Iraq. Last week, he was designated a threat to national security and barred from entering Canada for a speaking tour.

It's impossible to know whether Abdelrazik has heard of the Galloway kerfuffle. But it’s a safe bet that he wishes his case would receive as much international attention. Abdelrazik has been blocked from re-entering Canada for more than five years. What makes the case particularly noteworthy is that Abdelrazik, unlike Galloway, he has been a Canadian citizen since 1995.

The bizarre tale of the Canadian government keeping one of its own citizens out of the country began in 2003. That year, Abdelrazik left his wife and seven young children in Montreal to go visit his ailing mother in Khartoum, Sudan. On Sept. 10, 2003, he was arrested by Sudanese authorities on a request from Canada’s spy agency, known as CSIS, according to secret documents from Canada’s foreign affairs department — the documents were obtained by Paul Dewar, a politician with the left-of-center New Democratic Party. CSIS denies having done so.

Dewar calls it “the first case of Canadian rendition” — the George W. Bush administration's discredited practice of sending suspects to be tortured in other countries. At the time, the government in Canada was the centrist Liberal Party. Canadian and American security services suspected Abdelrazik of being a Muslim extremist — a charge his lawyer has flatly denied. He was twice jailed in Khartoum for a total of two years, and he claims that he was tortured. While imprisoned, he was interrogated by both CSIS and FBI agents.

Canadian government documents obtained by the Globe and Mail newspaper say FBI agents told Abdelrazik “he will never return to Canada” unless he cooperated fully. He was never charged. Sudanese authorities eventually released him, saying there was no evidence of links to terrorism. That’s when Abdelrazik’s ordeal became all the more Kafkaesque. By then, the Bush administration had labeled Abdelrazik a “high-level” Al Qaeda operative. It placed him on the United Nations’ terrorist blacklist and on America’s “no-fly” list. The Canadian government refused to issue Abdelrazik a passport. Although free, he was marooned in Sudan.

In a letter dated Nov. 15, 2007, the top anti-terrorist officer for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — the equivalent of the FBI — noted the force had reviewed Abdelrazik’s file and cleared him of any criminal or terrorist links. Yet still no travel documents were issued. By this time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party was in power.

In April 2008, Abdelrazik walked into the Canadian embassy in Khartoum and was granted “temporary safe haven” by the same government that refused to allow him to return home. He’s been living in the embassy lobby ever since. The U.N. blacklist specifically allows for any listed person to return home. The Harper government initially promised it would issue an emergency passport if Abdelrazik managed to book a seat on a flight to Canada. The chances were slim, since airlines fear losing U.S. landing rights by defying its “no-fly” list ban.

When Etihad Airways suddenly booked Adbelrazik, the Canadian government reneged on its promise. It wrote to his lawyer in December 2008 and upped the ante — Abdelrazik would be issued a passport if he could present a fully paid ticket. Abdelrazik is penniless. To make matters worse, the government warned it could criminalize anyone who gives him money on charges of abetting a terrorist. Still, at last count, 160 Canadians had chipped in to help purchase a ticket from Khartoum to Montreal. But Abdelrazik continues to live in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Sudan. Some have described his case as an act of banishment. Many are demanding the Canadian government respect the fundamental right of a Canadian to be allowed to return home.

As George Galloway whips up a storm of publicity surrounding his ban from Canada, Abousfian Abdelrazik remains forgotten and exiled from his own country.

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To say he can come back in the country if he gets a full price ticket, but that nobody can help him pay for the ticket is truly the act of a system which sees itself as untouchable, without realising that it makes them look fucking idiotic.

[faceless]

GG on CTV on Tuesday.

A short clip from Columbia University on Monday.

[major.tom]

[faceless]

University of Toronto Mississauga, CCT 1080
3359 Mississauga Road North, Mississauga
Tuesday, March 31, 7:00pm (doors open at 6:30pm)

This event will aim to raise additional funds for Galloway’s Gaza aid caravan. Only 600 tickets are available for Galloway’s Mississauga appearance. Please buy your tickets as soon as possible In the event that all tickets sell out, the student union has arranged to simulcast Galloway’s speech in two overflow spaces: the CCT Atrium and the Presentation Room in the Student Centre.

Tickets: $ 15.00 Adults | $ 10.00 Students, youth and seniors

Tickets are available at:

University of Toronto Mississauga
Student Centre Information Desk
3359 Mississauga Road North
(cash, debit)
Hours:
Mon to Fri 8am to 12am (midnight)
Sat to Sun 12pm (noon) to 8pm

Palestine House
3195 Erindale Station Road
(cash only)
Hours:
Mon to Fri 12pm (noon) to 6pm

ISNA Bookstore
2200 South Sheridan Way West
(cash only)
Hours:
Mon to Sat 12pm (noon) to 8pm


www.defendfreespeech.ca

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Quite a cool flyer...

[faceless]

at Rutgers University, New Jersey - 24th March