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Friday, March 20, 2009
Anti-war British MP banned from entering Canada: NDP
In a press released issued today, New Democrat Immigration Critic Olivia Chow is alleging that the Conservative government has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada because of his anti-war views. Galloway was schedule to deliver an anti-war talk on the war in Afghanistan.
“Harper's Conservatives are wrong to bar MP George Galloway,” said Chow. “The Minister of Immigration is becoming the ‘Minister of Censorship’. This bunker mentality indicates a government afraid of hearing contradictory points of view."
Chow argues that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s reasons for denying George Galloway entry to Canada are “an affront to freedom of speech” and reveal that the Harper government is reluctant to allow a full and open debate on the war in Afghanistan. According to Chow, a spokesperson for the Minister shockingly said Galloway is inadmissible to Canada due to his opposition to the deployment of NATO troops in Afghanistan.
“By the Minister’s own twisted logic anyone who opposed the war in Afghanistan should be barred entry to Canada,” continued Chow. “Would the Minister do the same to veteran British Conservative MP Sir Peter Tapsell, who called the war ‘unwinnable’ and once said it was ‘widely understood’ that the Taliban were ‘not international terrorists’?”
"Canadians are able to make their own judgement on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and freedom of speech is critical in a democratic country,” said Chow.
In October 2007, US Peacemakers Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, and retired Colonel Ann Wright were barred from speaking at a Toronto peace conference, according to NDP research.
Western Standard editor Peter Jaworski called Galloway a "leftwing nutbag" but "one of the most entertaining public speakers." I guess Canadians will not get to judge either statement for themselves.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on March 20, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Anti-war? He is a lot more than just anti-war: a supporter of Islamists and a rabid anti-Semite. He makes Code Pink look like amateurs.
Posted by: Alain | 2009-03-20 12:24:14 PM
I'm glad to see Jon Kay on the side of an open public square:
That said, I believe that our country should be open to anyone — even people with such loathsome views as Galloway — whose speech is not (to borrow a phrase) "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action." Otherwise, we are effectively engaging in censorship of speech whose message we simply don't like. And we all know where that leads.
A better solution would have been to let the guy in, but then have police on hand to apprehend him as soon as he violated Canada's anti-terror laws — say, by fund-raising for a banned terrorist group (something he's done before).
Shouldn't Kay's solution be acceptable even to the CJC's Bernie Farber who wrote (evidently before the Kenney decision):
"George Galloway has every right to speak here in Canada, no matter how offensive most Canadians would find his views and actions. But he does not have the right to raise funds for terrorist causes while on our shores. He does not have the right to promote terrorism or incite hatred.
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2009-03-20 1:04:50 PM
It looks like Ontario's war industries have a lot of pull - they didn't want Galloway or the other peace activists to ruin their profit margins. Nice little fascist Apartheid war profiteering state, Ontario!
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-03-20 1:17:46 PM
?? The NDP is for free speech? LOL
The man is basically a terrorist so why let him in?
Posted by: Faramir | 2009-03-20 1:44:08 PM
"The man is basically a terrorist so why let him in?" Posted by: Faramir | 2009-03-20 1:44:08 PM
Because he's not. Bush didn't think so, either. Harper blunders again.
Now you are going to see yet another embarrasment to Canada by the Harperclowns.
Are these guys really the smartest people the conservative movement can come up with?
Posted by: ronin | 2009-03-20 1:53:44 PM
"Are these guys really the smartest people the conservative movement can come up with?" - No they aren't. Reformers still do exist - like Leprachauns, and Elves and stuff.
Posted by: Buddha Chan | 2009-03-20 3:48:16 PM
he's not a citizen.
we owe him nothing.
as much as i'd like to believe in open borders, political philosophies with no room for arbitrariness and unicorns, when my libertarianism heads into lollipopland it's time to detour back into conservative territory.
Posted by: shel | 2009-03-20 7:15:05 PM
The power of censorship is the state's ability to abrogate or punish the dissemination of ideas and thus interfere with their transmission. The Canadian government has refused a British Member of Parliament, Labour MP George Galloway, from entry to Canada because Galloway opposes the US & Israel agendas with consistency and clever speeches. He was planning to be here at the end of March to deliver another screed against the Americans, the occupations in the middle east by western powers and Israel, and on this current financial debacle inspired by the US banking system.
George Galloway spoke before the US Congress in 2005 and he was spectacular in being the first western politician to tell Congress that George Bush he was a homicidal dictator-invader. There is even a book called "Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington" all about his truthful smackdown of Bush imperialism.
The explanation for barring George Galloway from Canada is that Mr. Galloway lends credibility and accepts some ideas of the islamic jihadists, thus making him like a Ron Paul acolyte as seen by a Missouri policeman, that is, a terrorist. Though Mr. Galloway has committed no act of violence or been an intemperate man he is nonetheless banned from espousing his ideas here in Canada? Only this week George Bush was feted like a prodigal son by 1,500 of Alberta's porcine corporate robber barons who love to bathe in the sulphorous afterglow that comes from chuckling over W's evil doings of the past 8 years. George Bush is the mass murderer first identified by George Galloway, but the killer of over 1,000,000 is welcomed by Canadian immigration while the truthteller is not.
Why has this happened?
I have watched Galloway debate. I have seen his speeches on Tv and read about the man. I like his anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism. He admires jihadists because they are trying to expel infidels (western powers & their lackeys) from the Islamic community. I agree with those positions.
Its a triumph of Canada's Israeli lobby that the Conservative & Liberals in government here in Canada can bar an elected member of the British Parliament based on his correct and truthful views on the middle east. Jews are my favorite people much of the time but they do influence Canada & the US governments way too much in an unhealthy way. Bernie Farber of Canadian Jewish Congress was in the Asper owned Israel-lobby newspaper National Post today urging Galloway be barred from Canada for his support of the liberation group Hamas and Hezbolleh.
Considering a good argument can be made that Israel is a European occupation zone put in the middle east to create ceaseless destabilization, it is easy to consider Hamas and Hezbolleh liberation organizations. Israel is fundamentally illegitimate, having expropriated the property of all Arabs in 1947 and established a fundamentalist race-pure state, expelling the majority of the residents of Palestine. Most citizens of Israel are immigrants who expelled the indigenous people who greatly outnumbered them.
Galloway is considered a terrorist with these views, as I'm sure my opinions make me a traitor to the Canadian state, considering Canadian soldiers are allied in this imperial occupation & invasion of Islamic territory.
Nonetheless, in a free and democratic society like Canada, any Canadian should be able to hear Galloway, and question or criticize him to his face, or simply listen. This Israeli-lobby inspired ban is very explicit censorship by the Canadian government. This is a power that will be widely abused; ultimately any speaker with principles can be barred from this country because all principled people are extremists. Only the compliant and compromising ordinary opinions will be welcome, that is, the status quo. As a patriotic Canadian (I'm just a rebel to the state, not the nation), I am very worried about this arbitrary power in the hands of tin-pot dictators like the Harper government.
Posted by: Marc Scott Emery | 2009-03-21 3:20:18 AM
Hey, it's NDP organizer Marc Emery! Hi Marc! You should be proud of signing up "thousands" of NDP members, since we all know how very very libertarian the NDP is.
Some might find it odd that you support a socialist party which wants to massively increase government spending and regulation and restrict speech, but not me.
Oh well, I just wanted to thank you for helping your union brothers try to install a pro-labour government, I can't tell you how much it means to us. Don't listen to those people who say you are an oppressive socialist, you can count on me and my CAW workers for support. Solidarity!
Signed,
Buzz Hargrove
(PS - you people are ridiculous)
Posted by: Buzzzzzzzz | 2009-03-21 3:57:08 AM
See what drugs do to you, kids? They turn you into a paranoid conspiracy theorist who sees plots everywhere.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-03-21 7:34:21 AM
Cut the crap, Marc. First of all, uniformed soldiers killing enemy uniformed soldiers on the field of battle in a pre-warned engagement is NOT murder. Secondly, killing non-uniformed terrorists actively engaged in insurrection is NOT murder. Finally, most of the deaths in Iraq have not been a result of Americans killing Iraqis, but of Iraqis killing Iraqis. How, pray tell, is Bush responsible for the fact that so many Iraqis hate each other?
As for Galloway, save your breath. He was caught accepting money from the UN food for oil program, long since revealed to be irredeemably corrupt. In a real sense, it's blood money. Galloway also actively advocates the overthrow of governments via terrorist means, and his even his own government has censured him numerous times for borderline illegal behaviour.
I can understand why you would respect the man, however. His actions are those of a Morgantaler or a Kevorkian, a deluded and shameless narcissist with a self-appointed mission. Maybe one day you two can be prison pen pals.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-03-21 8:31:34 AM
By being an NDP organizer, and a big one at that, Marc Emery actively organized and colluded to restrict the liberties of all Canadians.
He deserves to rot in jail for a decade and maybe then he will learn there are meaningful consequences for aiding and abetting the NDP, a socialist party which very nearly formed a government.
Selfish bastard only cares about legal weed, he doesn't care about massive infringements on liberty in the NDP platform orders of magnitude more important. He is a socialist and unionist bastard who deserves no sympathy. Raise my taxes and restrict my speech? Rot in jail, oppressive Marxist.
Posted by: Buzzzzzz | 2009-03-21 12:47:11 PM
Rot in jail, oppressive Marxist.
A keeper.
Posted by: Dr.Dawg | 2009-03-22 8:18:12 AM
His majesty ,the Prince of Pot will have the unique opportunity to form and lead a Prisoners Union while serving in the US Incarceration system. As he will be the only guilty inmate there in a vast population of 100% innocent prisoners, he may be enjoying a life long appointment as leader of the drug war oppressed.
.-- key word : " appointment" as prisoners do not usually vote.
One Prison
One Leader
One Phonecall
Posted by: 419 | 2009-03-22 10:08:30 AM
"...because all principled people are extremists...""
---doth say his Majesty, the Prince of Pot- Marc Scott Emery
and we can therfore likewise project that all extreemists are principled people ?
We imagine not-- the very nature of extreemism suggests any semblance of principles were displaced by manic rage and criminal activity with a truckload of justifications to back it up
"....Galloway is considered a terrorist with these views, as I'm sure my opinions make me a traitor to the Canadian state..."
___doth say the Prince of Pot..
Nobody except a small clan of badly aging boy men with extreemist substance abuse profiles pay much attention to what you say, witness how this forum routinely snarks you out and how the popular press media has grown tired of your 420 dancing dog show..We can't imagine the state cars what a stale dated stoner blogs about global politics either--
What the state does concern itself with in matters of social unrest is primarily unbolting organized criminal activity, drug war profiteering, international drug distribution, large scale domestic manufacturing drugs and good old fashioned money laundering..
If Mr Galloway had any serious ambition o propel his message to the generation coming into strength- we would have issued a graphic novel
Posted by: 419 | 2009-03-22 11:03:52 AM
A keeper. - Ooh! A stinging non-rebuttal by the ankle-biter in Kennel Twelve!
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-03-22 11:22:02 AM
nothin' i can add about Emery here that hasn't already been said.
yes, drugs should be legalised. that would go a long way toward stifling organised crime, and getting rid of so many police cars.
but last year (or so) my upper lip curled when i heard that he attached himself to the NDP to further the agenda.
libertartian? bullsh:)t. mixed up pothead.
"...in a free and democratic society like Canada, any Canadian should be able to hear Galloway, and question or criticize him to his face, or simply listen".
absolutely. if you're a citizen.
Posted by: shel | 2009-03-22 5:12:18 PM
"absolutely. if you're a citizen".
i meant to say, "...if he's a citizen".
the phonelines, internet, tv, radio and newspapers aren't totally controlled by the state yet (THAT should be our battle), so Galloway isn't being censored, and we aren't being stopped from communicating with him.
Posted by: shel | 2009-03-22 5:28:16 PM
"A keeper. - Ooh! A stinging non-rebuttal by the ankle-biter in Kennel Twelve!"
In 4 years of blogging he's never written anything memorable, he's jealous of those of us with the gift of being able to make words leap off the page. "Soft, left, envious pap" is too kind a description for John Baglow's turgid prose, though I admire his moxie for being uppity while under investigation for financing terrorists. We might have a rot-in-jail twofer here!
I have to admit I was proud of that line too, though. How often does that opportunity present itself?
Posted by: Buzz | 2009-03-23 12:30:53 AM
You prople that support the conservative party sound really stupid when you start yapping about other paties attacks on YOUR freedom. There has never been a greater threat to Canadian freedoms than herr Harper. Anybody who advocates imprisoning people over their interactions with plant life has no business lecturing anyone else about freedom. The NDP consistantly has been outspoken on the protection of civil liberties while the conservatives have consistantly tried to move us closer to the police state they desire.
Somebody who would trade their freedom for safety deserves neither. All it would take for IGGY to sweep into power with majority after majority would be for the Liberals to refuse to pass c-15 unless the cannabis provisions are removed and promise to bring in decrim legislation. Thousands of NDPers like myself would return to the Liberals, and the NDP and the Conservative parties will be as insignificant as 419.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-03-28 7:51:13 PM
The Afghanis fought and killed the mongols for two hundred years till they left, they fought the huns, they fought and killed the British for seventy years till they left, they fought and killed the Russians for twenty years till they left, they will fight you the Canadians and Yanks and kill you.......TILL YOU LEAVE. The sons and grandsons and daughters and great great grandsons will fight you and kill you till you leave. Don't we get this? They have done nothing to us except run our variety stores working twenty hours a day which white men won't do. As usual the weak Canadian govt. is a**-kissing the Americans and fighting a capitalist, imperial war to allow pipelines from Uzbekistan one day. It's not about building a school or democracy you don't drop two thousand pound bombs on those you help. Opium that is not their problem and not our business we need to stop our problem at home as to why our youth want heroin not go to another country and tell them what to do. Who are you oh great Canada look at your Indian reserves and the outports in Nfld who boil water for ten years yet we have a Tim Hortons in Kabul. Priorities? do you have any? How would you feel if they did not like Barley and came to war in Canada to eradicate the Barley crop. These people are proud for two thousand years and you a mere youth of 250 years are telling them how to live. Canada you are afraid of the USA look at the non drug commercial hemp plant with over 200 fine uses, oil cloth rope, paper yet you are afraid to grow it because of US pressure. Now you let your children die for them. I have been there and met these people just go home and leave them alone. If their women are covered so what, you cannot even fix your own country Good luck and the boys from Cartierville will continue dying until you leave.Where are the vietnam type protests when we need them Canada look at what you did for the Indians before you fix others BB
Posted by: artbb65 | 2009-09-15 7:27:25 AM
They have done nothing to us except run our variety stores working twenty hours a day which white men won't do.
That, and harbour the terrorist regime that launched September 11 and killed three thousand Americans.
As usual the weak Canadian govt. is a**-kissing the Americans and fighting a capitalist, imperial war to allow pipelines from Uzbekistan one day.
Right. Those two huge holes where a pair of 110-storey office buildings used to stand were just a convenient excuse. And if you get right down to it, it was an inside job.
It's not about building a school or democracy you don't drop two thousand pound bombs on those you help.
Like most radicals, you lack the ability to separate innocent from guilty. The only distinction you make is between those you like and those you don't.
Opium that is not their problem and not our business we need to stop our problem at home as to why our youth want heroin not go to another country and tell them what to do.
Do you take the same attitude towards the manufacture of nuclear weapons?
How would you feel if they did not like Barley and came to war in Canada to eradicate the Barley crop.
Barley is a foodstuff, not a narcotic. You're an idiot.
These people are proud for two thousand years and you a mere youth of 250 years are telling them how to live.
People in pre-Imperial times used to say the same thing about the Romans.
Canada you are afraid of the USA look at the non drug commercial hemp plant with over 200 fine uses, oil cloth rope, paper yet you are afraid to grow it because of US pressure.
The British Empire, which then included Canada, outlawed cannabis ten years before the U.S. did. You're an idiot.
I have been there and met these people just go home and leave them alone.
Sure. Soon as they stop exporting narcotics and terrorists. Until then, they can expect a rough ride.
If their women are covered so what, you cannot even fix your own country.
Right. Canada and the U.S. are the world's top destinations for immigrants because they suck.
Good luck and the boys from Cartierville will continue dying until you leave. Where are the vietnam type protests when we need them Canada look at what you did for the Indians before you fix others.
Ah, a Quebecker! And possibly a baby boomer in the bargain. That would explain a lot: the obnoxious and mouthy liberalism, the anti-American racism, the dope-addled rants against the Man, the pathological hatred for success and need to root for the underdog, however vile, and the moronic and self-righteous pacifism. It explains everything. It's no surprise to me that province has enjoyed have-not status since Duplessis died.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-09-15 9:09:33 AM
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