Toronto – Former British Lawmaker Galloway Says He’ll Sue Canada Over Hamas Label ‎

Toronto – Canada was once admired and loved around the world, but is now seen as “no more than an embassy for [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu,” and “a trumpet for the most extreme Israeli politicians,” the anti-war former British MP George Galloway told an audience on Sunday in a downtown Toronto United Church, his first Canadian appearance since being banned by the government last year.

He said Jerusalem is being “ethnically cleansed” of Christian Arabs and Muslims, and that Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp look out from their shanties to see their former homes and gardens in Haifa being “enjoyed by foreigners” from New York, London and Toronto.

He said the war in Afghanistan has been in vain and will end on negotiated terms that were available without the military invasion, and he called for a one-country solution to the Middle East crisis.

Mr. Galloway also posed for cameras in red Roots mittens, all of which was made possible by a judgment last week in the Federal Court about his ban from Canada.

Mr. Justice Richard Mosely said the branding of Mr. Galloway as a Hamas supporter, over his delivery of an aid convoy and cash into Gaza, was unfairly motivated by “antipathy to his political views,” and showed “a flawed and overreaching interpretation of the standards under Canadian law for labelling someone as engaging in terrorism or being a member of a terrorist organization.”

Although the ruling made clear there was no specific ban to overturn, it was critical enough of the government that Mr. Galloway took it to mean he would be granted admission, and he was, after a long interview.

He said he intends to sue the Canadian government for invasion of privacy because, as the judgment describes, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney called around to British newspapers in March 2009, tipping them off that Mr. Galloway would be denied entry because he supports Hamas.

This claim, based on a hastily produced assessment ordered by Mr. Kenney, was made despite a CSIS recommendation Mr. Galloway did not constitute a threat, the ruling shows.

“What’s the point in having a security service?” Mr. Galloway asked, if you ignore its advice.

“I was a boxer in my youth,” he said. “Maybe Mr. Kenney would like to go five rounds with me.”

Instead, he challenged “the Minister of Censorship and Deportation” to a debate.

“Gorgeous George” Galloway, famous among other things for his appearance on the reality show Big Brother in a full-body red leotard, was once a rebellious Labour party MP for Glasgow, but was kicked out in 2003 for his opposition to the war in Iraq, which Britain joined under Labour prime minister Tony Blair.

He went on to be elected in London under the Respect ticket, a coalition of socialist causes, although his voting in Parliament was minimal, and he lost in the recent election.

Ever controversial, he won a libel suit in 2004 against the Daily Telegraph newspaper for its claim, based on documents found in the bombed-out Iraqi Foreign Ministry, that he received payments under the United Nations Oil for Food program, designed to ease the human burden of Iraqi sanctions.

He is also one of the very few people to turn the tables on the “Fake Sheikh,” Mazher Mahmood, a News of the World undercover sting journalist whom Mr. Galloway exposed by complaining to police and Parliament.

It takes a certain kind of outrage to get left-wing activists energized about threats to free speech, as this episode is widely described. Many obvious threats have passed with nary a protest from this corner of the political landscape.

But the Conservative government’s approach to pro-Palestinian and other Muslim groups in Canada has been unusually combative, and reached a nadir during the Israeli assault on Hamas militants in Gaza over the winter of 2008-2009.

After Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation, called Mr. Kenney a “professional whore” for his support of Israel during the way, Mr. Kenney’s office responded with a spending review that led to the cancellation of CAF’s language programs for new immigrants.

On Sunday, it was CAF vice-president Ali Mallah who introduced Mr. Galloway, and took his own shots at Mr. Kenney.

The government, having been scolded by Mr. Justice Mosely, did not contribute to the publicity this time around by commenting. It did, however, announce on Friday that Zijad Delic, executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, would be banned from Islamic Heritage Month celebrations in Ottawa, not for anything he has done, but because six years ago a former head of the CIC said something outrageous during a bit of cut-and-thrust with a conservative talk show host.

As Jay Paxton, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, put it, “The Canadian Islamic Congress has declared that Israelis over the age of 18 are legitimate targets of suicide bombers. These types of comments don’t support Islamic heritage, they simply divide Canadians, promulgate hate and they have no place in Monday’s celebrations.”

What happened on the Michael Coren Show in 2004 has since been elevated to popular legend. Mohamed Elmasry, then the CIC president, said, “anybody above 18 is a part of the Israeli popular army” and thus a valid target for militants. He has since said this was taken “out of context.”

However offensive it may have been, though, banning Mr. Delic for it appears arbitrary, like banning Mr. Kenney from a science conference because Stockwell Day is a creationist.

It is especially odd because Mr. Delic has spoken at government events before. Relations do not appear due for a thaw anytime soon.

Mr. Galloway promised a cross-Canada speaking tour for later in November, during which he hopes to chase Mr. Kenney around Ottawa in his new mittens.

And later this month, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East is hosting a similar tour for Norman Finkelstein, a U.S. academic with a reputation as the thinking-man’s Galloway, who was once similarly banned from entering Israel on suspicion of contact with the terrorist group Hezbollah.