NEWS
2010
How George Galloway was barred from Canada in less than 2 hours
Campbell Clark | Globe and Mail | April 25, 2010
'It's all nonsense': George Galloway on Canada's cold shoulder
Sarah Boesveld | Globe and Mail | April 25, 2010
Court documents put spotlight on minister in banning of British MP
Cathryn Atkinson | rabble.ca | April 19, 2010
National security claim rejected by judge in bid to redact Galloway emails
Cathryn Atkinson | rabble.ca | April 20, 2010
Jason Kenney: Point man for a theocratic state?
Murray Dobbin | rabble.ca | April 21, 2010
George Galloway: leaked papers reveal Canada's torment over banning MP
Ewen MacAskill | The Guardian | April 21, 2010
2009
Banned
Brit MP may sue Canada
The Canadian Press • 26 March 2009
Galloway
to appeal Canadian entry ban
AFP • 25 March 2009
Galloway
ban an attack on free speech, says group
CTV News • 25 March 2009
Galloway
ban an affront to free speech: supporters
The Canadian Press • 25 March 2009
Banning
of British MP to be challenged in court
Toronto
Star • 25 March 2009
Community
groups rally behind banned Brit MP Galloway
Metro News • 25 March 2009
Letters
to the editor: More voices on Kenney, Galloway
Toronto Star • 25 March 2009
I
have never supported Hamas, says Galloway
CTV news • 24 March 2009
Banned
British MP takes aim at Ottawa
Toronto Star • 24 March 2009
Banning
Galloway is wild over-reaction
Montreal Gazette • 24 March 2009
Banning
British MP a clumsy, dangerous move
Toronto Star • 21 March 2009
George
Galloway banned from Canada
The
Guardian • 20 March 2009
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Statement
by George Galloway MP
on Jason Kenney's ban
March 20, 2009
The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert
Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his
country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing
last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business.
At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to
follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.
Kenney is quite a card – almost a joker in fact. 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 prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora 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 organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable
young members to self-immolate in public places.
While 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 Lord Conrad Black – a Kenney ally, now breaking
stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note 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
(for we must assume cabinet responsibility) 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 party 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 Prime Minister 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". How long and how dark, as George Bush might
have put it, I misunderestimated.
But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO
governments today that your current 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
the troops – British, Canadian and other – means bringing
them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists,
the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for
themselves.
For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian
from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some
of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious
matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of
Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece.
Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up
a parody of liberty.
Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise
known as 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 of his decision.
The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the
war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above
all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to
hear me – greater in number now and including those who positively
disagree with what I have to say.
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.
George Galloway MP
www.georgegalloway.com
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