[R-G] Tories not behind move to bar anti-war British MP, Kenney says

Tue Mar 24 11:15:05 MDT 2009

Tories not behind move to bar anti-war British MP, Kenney says
Campbell Clark. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Mar 24, 2009. pg. A.9

Conservative politicians did not instigate the move to bar outspoken  
British MP George Galloway from entering Canada, Immigration Minister  
Jason Kenney said yesterday.

The Canada Border Services Agency has told Mr. Galloway that an aid  
convoy he led into Gaza earlier this month amounted to engaging in  
terrorism and being a member of a terrorist organization because he  
said he would donate the aid to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Mr. Galloway, who has four speaking engagements scheduled in Canada  
next week, is a five-term British MP who was kicked out of Tony  
Blair's Labour Party in 2003 for statements opposing the Iraq war.

Mr. Kenney said Mr. Galloway is being barred for providing financial  
and material support to Hamas, not for his views, and the decision  
won't be overruled.

"It's not about words, it's about deeds. It's not about his opinions,  
it's about his financial, material support for an illegal terrorist  
organization," Mr. Kenney said. The NDP and various aid organizations  
have accused the Tories of political interference in the border  
agency's decision.

The Immigration Minister said he has no power to bar someone from  
Canada, only to overrule the Canada Border Services Agency if someone  
is deemed inadmissible. He said he was not "personally" consulted by  
the CBSA, although his aides were aware of the case.

"There was some discussion in my office, but I could not and cannot  
give direction to agents of the CBSA, who are not even in my  
ministry," Mr. Kenney said.

The Canadian High Commission in London told Mr. Galloway in a letter  
sent Friday that the post-war aid convoy he led into Gaza made him  
inadmissible under sections of Canada's immigration law. Hamas is  
officially listed as a terrorist organization in Canada.

But Mr. Galloway's Toronto lawyer, Barbara Jackman, argues the grounds  
that Canada has cited for excluding Mr. Galloway would make many aid  
groups terrorists, too.

"If you use that as the indicator of engagement in terrorism, and  
membership, then the UN organization that assists Palestinian  
refugees, the Red Crescent Society - they're all terrorists," Ms.  
Jackman said. "Providing humanitarian aid isn't terrorism."

The government's letter says it's a preliminary decision, however, and  
invites Mr. Galloway to submit a rebuttal before it is made final. Ms.  
Jackman is drafting the rebuttal.

She said given the minister's assertion that the decision won't be  
reviewed, the government's request for his submissions seems  
insincere. "It's a setup," she said. Mr. Galloway has vowed to take  
the government to court.

Ms. Jackman said new reports make clear that most of the aid provided  
by the "Viva Palestina" convoy went to the Red Crescent Society,  
although Mr. Galloway did give about $45,000 to Mr. Haniyeh's  
administration.

Though he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail last week that  
civilized countries don't bar people for their views, he has in the  
past advocated barring both French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen  
and anti-Muslim Dutch politician Geert Wilders from Britain.

"Freedom of speech is not an absolute," he said about Mr. Wilders in  
February.

Activists from the Canadian Peace Alliance, meanwhile, say they are  
organizing a delegation, including unnamed MPs, to drive into the U.S.  
next week and accompany Mr. Galloway to the Canadian border. He is  
scheduled to make speaking appearances in Toronto, Mississauga,  
Montreal, and Ottawa.

"We've been overwhelmed by phone calls, messages, e-mails, that sort  
of thing, since the ban was announced," said James Clark of the  
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War. "Ticket sales have actually gone up."