blake 3:17
22nd April 2010, 21:55
Evil, incompetent, anti-democratic? All three? Nice to see Kenney's office screwed up good.
From the Guardian:
George Galloway: leaked papers reveal Canada's torment over banning MP
George Galloway's lawyers will argue that the Respect party MP is not a threat to Canada's national security
Ewen MacAskill (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ewenmacaskill) in Washington
guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/), Wednesday 21 April 2010 21.34 BST
Documents leaked today reveal the contortions the Canadian government went through over its decision last year to ban the British MP George Galloway (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/georgegalloway).
The leak, on a Canadian website, comes just days before the start of a court case in Toronto in which Galloway and his supporters will seek to overturn the ban which has turned the British MP into a cause célèbre.
Galloway was banned from entering Canada (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/canada) to speak round the country on the Middle East and Afghanistan. The government claimed it was acting on national security grounds because he had provided material support to the Palestinian organisation, Hamas (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/hamas), which is proscribed in the country as a terrorist organisation.
Galloway's defence team will argue in the federal court on Monday that he poses no threat to national security. Although he took a convoy of aid to Gaza, which is controlled by the elected Hamas government, his lawyers will say that he is neither a member, or supporter, of Hamas, and that, in fact, he has been a lifelong supporter of Hamas's rivals, Fatah, which is not branded a terrorist organisation.
The 66 pages of emails and letters, covering the four days up to the ban and available at rabble.ca (http://rabble.ca/), reveal how opinion within the government was deeply divided over the decision.
One of the documents, written by the Canadian high commissioner in London, Jim Wright, cautioned against the ban. "There is no question that George Galloway is outspoken and, while extremely clever and media savvy, is not taken seriously in the UK. Denying him entry to Canada will simply give him a greater platform."
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/george-galloway-canada-ban-hamas
From rabble.ca:
Exclusive: Fed court docs raise questions about Harper Minister and gov's use of national security claim
By Kim Elliott (http://rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/1741)
| April 21, 2010
The controversy behind the Canadian banning of outspoken British anti-war MP George Galloway is set to deepen, with potentially damaging implications for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, and others; and with possible repercussions for the government's use of national security claims for withholding information from the public.
rabble.ca has reviewed publicly accessible Federal Court documents that outline a short but intense campaign on the part of Kenney's office and government officials to keep Galloway out of Canada, and the lengths they were willing to go to do so.
The documents number more than two hundred pages and include emails, memos, government letters, articles, and court files. Sixty six pages of documents of particular importance were mistakenly released to Galloway's legal team, and the Canadian government legal team requested their return - unopened and unread - for redaction on grounds of national security. With some minor exceptions, a federal judge declined their claim.
In articles written by news and feature editor Cathryn Atkinson (http://www.rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/9312), and published on April 19 and April 20th, rabble.ca explores questions these documents raise including: Why did the government want to redact these pages so badly that they made a claim of national security? How was the Prime Minister's office, who were included in email exchanges, involved? Did Minister Kenny's office directly interfere with the work of civil servants in Ottawa and London in the case - with or without the Prime Minister's blessing? Who leaked the news of the banning to the British media before Galloway himself was informed, potentially violating Canada's Privacy Act?
Part 1 Court documents put spotlight on minister in banning of British MP (http://rabble.ca/news/2010/04/galloway-ban-story-told-via-e-mail)
Part 2 National security claim rejected by judge in bid to redact Galloway emails (http://rabble.ca/news/2010/04/government-lawyers-failed-redact-galloway-emails)
Recognizing that there are more questions to be asked, and that Canadians deserve to see the original documents, rabble.ca has made copies of the Federal Court documents available below, and embedded in the stories and invite crowd-sourcing for further angles to this story.
Source: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabble-staff/2010/04/exclusive-fed-court-docs-raise-questions-about-harper-govs-use--0
From the Guardian:
George Galloway: leaked papers reveal Canada's torment over banning MP
George Galloway's lawyers will argue that the Respect party MP is not a threat to Canada's national security
Ewen MacAskill (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ewenmacaskill) in Washington
guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/), Wednesday 21 April 2010 21.34 BST
Documents leaked today reveal the contortions the Canadian government went through over its decision last year to ban the British MP George Galloway (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/georgegalloway).
The leak, on a Canadian website, comes just days before the start of a court case in Toronto in which Galloway and his supporters will seek to overturn the ban which has turned the British MP into a cause célèbre.
Galloway was banned from entering Canada (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/canada) to speak round the country on the Middle East and Afghanistan. The government claimed it was acting on national security grounds because he had provided material support to the Palestinian organisation, Hamas (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/hamas), which is proscribed in the country as a terrorist organisation.
Galloway's defence team will argue in the federal court on Monday that he poses no threat to national security. Although he took a convoy of aid to Gaza, which is controlled by the elected Hamas government, his lawyers will say that he is neither a member, or supporter, of Hamas, and that, in fact, he has been a lifelong supporter of Hamas's rivals, Fatah, which is not branded a terrorist organisation.
The 66 pages of emails and letters, covering the four days up to the ban and available at rabble.ca (http://rabble.ca/), reveal how opinion within the government was deeply divided over the decision.
One of the documents, written by the Canadian high commissioner in London, Jim Wright, cautioned against the ban. "There is no question that George Galloway is outspoken and, while extremely clever and media savvy, is not taken seriously in the UK. Denying him entry to Canada will simply give him a greater platform."
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/george-galloway-canada-ban-hamas
From rabble.ca:
Exclusive: Fed court docs raise questions about Harper Minister and gov's use of national security claim
By Kim Elliott (http://rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/1741)
| April 21, 2010
The controversy behind the Canadian banning of outspoken British anti-war MP George Galloway is set to deepen, with potentially damaging implications for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, and others; and with possible repercussions for the government's use of national security claims for withholding information from the public.
rabble.ca has reviewed publicly accessible Federal Court documents that outline a short but intense campaign on the part of Kenney's office and government officials to keep Galloway out of Canada, and the lengths they were willing to go to do so.
The documents number more than two hundred pages and include emails, memos, government letters, articles, and court files. Sixty six pages of documents of particular importance were mistakenly released to Galloway's legal team, and the Canadian government legal team requested their return - unopened and unread - for redaction on grounds of national security. With some minor exceptions, a federal judge declined their claim.
In articles written by news and feature editor Cathryn Atkinson (http://www.rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/9312), and published on April 19 and April 20th, rabble.ca explores questions these documents raise including: Why did the government want to redact these pages so badly that they made a claim of national security? How was the Prime Minister's office, who were included in email exchanges, involved? Did Minister Kenny's office directly interfere with the work of civil servants in Ottawa and London in the case - with or without the Prime Minister's blessing? Who leaked the news of the banning to the British media before Galloway himself was informed, potentially violating Canada's Privacy Act?
Part 1 Court documents put spotlight on minister in banning of British MP (http://rabble.ca/news/2010/04/galloway-ban-story-told-via-e-mail)
Part 2 National security claim rejected by judge in bid to redact Galloway emails (http://rabble.ca/news/2010/04/government-lawyers-failed-redact-galloway-emails)
Recognizing that there are more questions to be asked, and that Canadians deserve to see the original documents, rabble.ca has made copies of the Federal Court documents available below, and embedded in the stories and invite crowd-sourcing for further angles to this story.
Source: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabble-staff/2010/04/exclusive-fed-court-docs-raise-questions-about-harper-govs-use--0