Friday, March 27, 2009

George Galloway Barred From Entering Canada

Changing in cultural and attitude among countries and adapting other people's habits became something common in these days.

The shoe-throwing incident took place in Iraq has its effect on how Europeans would express their feelings towards those they despise - check Holland and Chinese living in Britain, for example.

Last February, Geert Wilders, was denied entry to the United Kingdom because he was considered a threat to public security. It did not end up there, because now the Danish government is going through some really heated discussion on whether to allow Wilders to be granted entry to that country to participate in June in a conference on the theme of freedom of speech and radicalization.

Anders Samuelson, from the Danish Liberal Alliance Party said in an interview with Politiken newspaper "We don't want to make this conference into some sort of freak show, to which we simply call in those who can create most trouble on the streets, simply to show how brave we are."

Mr Samuelson added that

"I can't see that Wilders can offer anything constructive in relation to the situation we currently have here in Denmark. We don't need to debate whether we support the freedom of speech. We do. And that's it. All of us."

Whether it became something in common related to governmental conduct in dealing with MP's these days or not, but the Canadian government decided to follow the British with such, this time in dealing with the planned visit to Canada by Geroge Galloway, the Irish MP who wanted to attend a forum on War.

Below is an interview with Galloway explaining the reasons for his visit and his argument to the Canadian government decision. One thing I am puzzled about: what the Jewish Defense League Canada director is doing in the middle of all this? Oh yeah, because Galloway should be condemned to bringing cars to Hamas, and he should be humiliated in that interview by bringing someone like the guest in that interview.

The reasons given for the decision to barr George Galloway to enter Canada by the ministry of Immigration, for the information, actually for his support of Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization in Canada, according to the ministry.

More than one source questioned whether Israeli authorities is taking care guarding the borders of Canada's

The lawyers of Galloway argue that the whole saga has nothing to do with Hamas, rather than a personal dislike from the minister of immigration's part.


British MP George Galloway Barred From Entering Ca


There is some argument about whether the Canadian government did in fact barred the wrong George from entering the country

I have my reservations on the some of what Mr. Galloway motives, namely, his admiration of Saddam Hussain (a scene of that can be viewed in the video above), by making him a hero and a brave leader. Yet, the work he did by entering Gaza after that butchering committed by Israeli army (confirmed by a number of soldiers recently interviewed telling of orders to target Palestinian civilians) is something admirable. Of course, in addition to the fact that he broke an economic and political blockade on the people of Gaza.

Why don't they get it, a policy of imposing sanctions on a group of people nowadays under the slogans of isolating a certain political group will never work, simply because only ordinary people would suffer.

Look at Iraq, Saddam, his sons, the sons of Saddam's followers such as Tariq Azziz and Ramadan were traveling (with visas issued by embassies of other countries) and their wealth reach a level that no one can imagine. While ordinary Iraqi goes to a public market, try to sell his shoes and a sofa to get money so he can buy food for his family.

Look at North Korea, people do not have rice, and their government is preparing to launch a long range missile to install a satellite on orbit!

and the same happened in Gaza...

Sometimes I just have the feeling that this whole sanctions thing nothing but to purge certain group of people from the face of earth: some will die and the rest is just mutants with no health, education or motivation to go further with life

1 comment:

nadia said...

The JDL was campaigning hard to keep him out of the country, they also tried to get the organizers of protests in Canada against the bombing of Gaza slapped with criminal charges for "inciting hatred" and were lobbying politicians to shut down Israeli Apartheid week.
I really dislike Galloway for a number of reasons, but this move was part of a general crackdown on activists that's been happening the last few years, but the party in power right now comes from the far-right end of the spectrum so this is not very surprising to me.

What worries me way more than any of this though, is the number of articles I've seen in the Canadian press quoting the JDL as an authority on who's supporting terrorists, without even mentioning that they themselves are consiered a violent extremist organization by the FBI.

In a much more general sense though "freedom of speech" is a tricky issue. Given Europe's history, I think laws against hate speech make sense and it's probably a good thing they have some legal means to crack down on fascists, but where you draw the line is a tough question.