Galloway begins Canadian lecture tour via live video link from N.Y.
British MP challenges Canada's immigration minister to 'debate me like a man'
Last Updated: Monday, March 30, 2009 | 11:58 PM ET
CBC News
British MP George Galloway's speech was broadcast live from New York to the Metropolitan United Church in Toronto on Monday. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)British MP George Galloway is being forced to address Canadian audiences by video link this week after a federal judge upheld a government ban that denied him entry to Canada because of his support of Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Federal Court Judge Luc Martineau said he wasn't satisfied that the necessary conditions had been met to grant Galloway an emergency injunction that would suspend the ban so he could appear at a series of scheduled lectures, including a public forum in Toronto on Monday night titled Resisting War from Gaza to Kandahar.
One of the conditions is called "irreparable harm" — in this case, whether or not the rights of Canadians will be infringed if they don't get a chance to hear Galloway.
"The judge argued because Mr. Galloway is going to broadcast speeches into the cities that Canadians can hear him that way," James Clark, a peace activist with Stop the War and one of the organizers of Galloway's speaking tour, told CBC News.
"The lawyers representing Mr. Galloway argue there's case law in the United States that says there's a difference, a meaningful difference, between hearing somebody speak over a phone or the internet and having somebody in person who can interact with an audience, and I think there might be a potential to set a precedent on that."
Galloway will deliver his scheduled speeches to audiences in Toronto, Mississauga, Ont., Montreal and Ottawa this week from a studio in New York.
His first speech, to the Toronto audience, began at 7 p.m. ET on Monday. He also appeared on CBC's The Hour via video link from New York, beginning the interview by ridiculing Canada's decision to bar him as a security risk.
"Your government seems more concerned with national security issues than the United States of America. That's a bit of an odd state of affairs, no?" he told host George Stroumboulopoulos.
Supporters claim partial victory
Dylan Penner of the Ottawa Peace Assembly tapes up a poster promoting a March 30 speech by Galloway. (Canadian Press) Clark said Monday's ruling was a partial victory because the judge recognized there were "serious issues to be tried" if a judicial review of the ban occurs.
"The arguments raised by the applicants are not frivolous or vexatious," Martineau said. "However, a proper factual record and the benefit of full legal argument… are lacking at the present time."
In a letter dated March 20, the Canada Border Services Agency advised Galloway he had been deemed inadmissible to Canada because he had given $45,000 to Hamas, which Canada categorizes as a banned terrorist organization.
Under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, it is an offence to knowingly participate in or contribute to any activity of a terrorist group.
Galloway's supporters allege political interference in the case in light of comments made by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Kenney has said he did not ask the border agency to rule on Galloway's admissibility but would not use his ministerial power to overturn the decision.
Galloway slams immigration minister
In his speech Monday night, broadcast to about 500 people in a downtown Toronto church, Galloway took aim at Canada's immigration minister and the government for his being denied entry to the country.
"Come out and debate me like a man, Jason Kenney," Galloway said.
He said it was "poetic justice" that Kenney's attempt to silence him backfired so wholeheartedly.
"People all around the world watching this live are going to learn what you tried to stop me [from] saying," Galloway said.
He defended giving money to Hamas, saying it was to help the people of Gaza. "I am not a supporter of Hamas, but I am a supporter of democracy," he said.
Galloway also criticized the Canadian government for its position on the Middle East and its mission in Afghanistan.
"I love your country and what it used to stand for," he said. "Canada used to stand for something in the world — for peace."
Critical of Canadian foreign policy
Galloway's harsh criticism of Canada's foreign policy on Gaza is the real reason he has been denied entry, Clark and other supporters say. Galloway himself has also alleged that it's his views on Afghanistan, and specifically his objection to the presence of foreign troops there, that are behind Canada's ban.
"It is completely absurd to suggest that he is a member of a terrorist organization, that he has committed a terrorist act," Clark said. "He delivered a humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza."
His supporters stress that Galloway gave money to the head of the Palestinian government in Gaza, not to the head of Hamas, although the two are de facto the same since Hamas is currently the governing authority in Gaza.
The militant group won the 2006 legislative elections in the Palestinian territories and after failed coalition talks with the more moderate Palestinian movement Fatah took control over Gaza while Fatah assumed control in the West Bank. The political head of Hamas is Ismail Haniyeh, who headed up the Hamas slate of candidates in the 2006 elections, while its long-time leader, and one of its original founders, is Mahmoud Zahhar.
Earlier this month, Haniyeh presented Galloway with a Palestinian passport as thanks for the financial and material support he provided as part of an aid convoy organized by the group Viva Palestina that visited sites damaged during the Israeli offensive in January.
No stranger to controversy
Galloway, 54, has been an MP since 1987 and has attracted controversy on several occasions during his tenure — both at home and abroad.
In 2007, the British Parliament's lower house suspended Galloway based on accusations he concealed his financial dealings with former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's government.
Galloway was suspended for 18 days following an investigation that found a charity he set up was partly funded by the Iraqi dictator.
Galloway accused his opponents of hypocrisy, saying none of the political parties asked people who gave them money where it came from.
In 2005, Galloway created a spectacle on Capitol Hill by denouncing U.S. senators while voluntarily testifying under oath before a committee. He called the panel of senators a "lickspittle Republican committee" and accused them of "the mother of all smokescreens."
After he was expelled from the Labour party in 2003 for urging British soldiers not to fight in Iraq, Galloway formed his own party, Respect, and won re-election to the Commons in 2005 in the constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow in London. Prior to that, he had represented constituencies in Glasgow.
With files from the Canadian Press
