Excellent op-ed over at Global Research Canada on the George Galloway disgraceful debacle. Jewish Lobbyists at it again, this time in Canada..........be sure to read the update at the end of this post for a good laugh. It would appear this is not over yet and that George will be inside Canada by Mrach 30th, with a little help from his friends and a whole lot of embarrassment and negative publicity for the Canadian goverment.
Double Standards and Canada’s Pro-War Government: How Bush Came to Canada In the Same Week That an Anti-War MP Was Barred
A gross violation of constitutional and international law occurred this week heralding a dark day for Canadian governance and society. The credibly accused war criminal George W Bush was allowed entry into Canada in violation of Canada’s ratified international and constitutional obligations.
The Canadian government’s complacency in regard to the war criminal’s visit, was starkly contrasted with the haste of the government in banning the anti-war British MP George Galloway from entering Canada, who was planning to speak to an anti-war church group in Toronto in the coming weeks.
James Clark of the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War condemned the Harper government’s censorship as “a frontal attack on free speech.”
The double standard is obvious. The very same legal codes which the Canadian government were prepared to defenestrate to accommodate the war criminal George W Bush were preyed in aid by the Canadian Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenny, to inform the peace activist Galloway that he would not be welcome in Canada based on his opinions on the illegal war in Afghanistan. Jason Kenny, a Calgary MP who recently embraced the so called People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (banned by most European governments for being a terrorist group) and who scolded the Lebanese prime minister, for his criticisms of Canada’s support for the Israeli War Crimes against Lebanon in 2006, branded Galloway: “an infandous street corner Cromwell” (an interesting formulation seeing that Cromwell was a man who stood against arbitrary government).
It soon became apparent that there was some lucrative lobbying occurring behind the scenes. The Jewish Defence League in an ironic alliance with Canada’s far right government vociferously lobbied to prohibit the anti-racist, anti-fascist British MP, from entering Canada. Meir Weinsten of the JDL debated Galloway on UK Channel 4 this week, labelling him: “a threat to Canadian security” and a “proxy agent” for Hamas and Hezbollah, finishing by threatening all of the Canadian pro-Galloway supporters that the JDL: “will be looking into these organization to expose their links to terrorist organizations.” Galloway described the fulminations of the JDL representative as: “venal and brute threats”, and called for debate rather than exclusion.
It is curious that the JDL is ostensibly planning to launch a witch hunt against those on the Canadian anti-war left who support anti-racist, socialist figures like Galloway, whilst they ally themselves with a far right government, governed by a party which has its genesis in the highly bigoted Reform Party. Surely such folly exposes these groups as being merely political mouthpieces for Israel rather than genuine humanitarian watchdogs? Mr Galloway is, contrary to the claims of the JDL, famous for his hostility towards those who spew the poison of anti-Semitism. In November 2007 Galloway organized a protest against the infamous Holocaust-denier David Irving who many believed, myself included, should not have been provided with a platform at Oxford University to deny the Holocaust.
(see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-496301/Oxford-students-sit-protest-fails-silence-Holocaust-denier-David-Irving-BNP-leader-Nick-Griffin.html).
Moreover Galloway, who hosts a radio show twice a week, regularly traduces those who would seek to criticise Israel with anti-Semitic slurs
(see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLlSOXfEyO0).
These nuances were deliberately glossed over by - what Professor Denis Rancourt, of University of Ottawa, characterizes as Canada’s “Israel Lobby” - who pressured the Canadian government to censure Mr Galloway from speaking to Canadians.
It is blatantly obvious that the Canadian government did not want an eloquent anti-war voice subverting their contrived disinformation campaign which they and their pro-war lobby groups invest millions of dollars into disseminating. It is an embarrassment that the Canadian government ignored the calls of Lawyers Against the War, Ramsay Clark (former Attorney General of United States of America) and many other righteous activists and scholars to implement its own laws and apprehend an actual terrorist, namely George W Bush, whilst at the same time censuring one of the world’s most prominent and respected anti-war activists namely George Galloway MP.
A country which lacks the rule of law is a tyranny. These far-right regimes have come for the Muslims and massacred them in their millions, now they are coming for the socialists and activists. Who will be next in this McCarthyist purge? MORE TO READ HERE
Uh oh, it's not over yet............
The ban has stirred a lively debate over freedom of speech and censorship. B'nai Brith Canada and the Canadian Jewish Congress, the country's two leading Jewish advocacy groups, are supporting the ban.
The decision "demonstrates its resolve in the battle for pluralism and against terror and anti-Semitism," said Rabbi Reuven Bulka, CJC's co-president. "All Canadians should be proud that our government has told George Galloway that he is not welcome in our country."
Ah, but never you mind, Georgie and his supporters have another plan. George will be in Canada by the 30th of March. see here:
Organizers of Galloway's four-city Canadian speaking tour have vowed to take the government to court to seek an emergency injunction to overturn the ban.
Should that fail, a delegation of Canadian lawmakers, lawyers and activists is assembling to escort Galloway from the United States, where he is on tour, across the Canadian border on March 30.
Link here
