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CANADA A NO-GO ZONE for BUSH and CHENEY : THREE STRIKES, They’re Out! Out! Out!……Cheney’s afraid!
Bush & Hitler = the same (Photo credit: MedienGuerilla)
Top Two Torturers avoid Canada
This blogger writes: The two top torturers of the disgraced George W. Bush White House administration seem to have finally hit three-strikes-and-out against their own free entry into Canada in the future. The Decider Himself, George W. Bush, and his former vice president Dick Cheney have struck out three times in Canada since September, 2011, handicapped by their twin status as fugitives from the law for their self-confessed records of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
See videos of Bush admitting to approving torture HERE
DATELINE September 27, 2011, Vancouver, CANADA 
Book Hustler Cheney hustled out of town
Former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney drew a war criminal’s welcome - “the kind of welcome he deserved,” in the words of one protestor – as the American leader most often referred to a s a “war criminal” arrived in Vancouver to promote his memoirs and speak at a $500-a-plate speaking event. Cheney spoke to The Bon Mot book club in Vancouver to hustle his new book. At the posh Club Vancouver, protestors effectively obstructed entry to the event. Cheney was said to have been extremely upset when his exit from the club was delayed for seven hours while police cleared the surrounding streets of angry protestors. The next day, in Calgary, Alberta, Cheney again drew protestors at a second promotional dinner and speech.
In the meantime, since the end of the Bush administration in 2008 numerous human rights organizations have been bombarding the government of Canada with demands to apply its immigration laws banning or detaining persons who have been deemed by the government of Canada to be, among other things, “accused of international crimes, torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity“ under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, sec 35(1) (a) equally to all people. To this date, Bush and and Cheney have been given carte blanche to enter and leave Canada with impunity
…but times change… DATELINE October 20, 2011, Surrey, CANADA 
Bush smirks at Canadians, gets ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card from AG
Bush speaks in Canada, pockets $200,000, Smirks, Gives Justice the Slip! The “Protest at the Sheraton” was a street protest outside the Sheraton Hotel, Surrey, B.C., where George W. Bush spoke before a Chamber of Commerce crowd and collected a fee believed to have been approximately $200,000. Protestors howled in the streets, specifically aiming at outing Bush’s culpability in the perpetration of war crimes, specifically torture, associated with the War On Terror.
Simultaneously, The Canadian Center for International Justice (CCIJ) filed a criminal indictment against Bush timed to synchronize exactly with the protest at the Sheraton, for his alleged criminal complicity in the torture of prisoners. All signs point to suspicious political interference with the Office of the Attorney General for British Columbia, as the CCIJ indictment was first booked for a January hearing, then hours later mysteriously dropped from the court’s agenda by a Stay of Proceedings. Rookie Attorney General Shirley Bond has never explained her action in this event.
Bush is living now in a shrinking world. Everywhere he goes criminal charges await him. He narrowly escaped justice in February, 2011 in Switzerland where a criminal indictment awaited him. Bush won’t be visiting Switzerland again.
DATE LINE March 13, 2012 Toronto, CANADA 
Cheney and daughter fear entering Canada
Dick Cheney and his daughter Elizabeth cancel speeches in Toronto, Canada. They express concern that they would be exposed to danger by Canadian protestors who oppose torture and want Cheney arrested, as Cheney experienced in Vancouver, B.C. in September 2011. American law scholar and popular blogger Jonathan Turley explained at the time that, “while Americans appear reconciled with the torture program, citizens in other countries still demand that Bush officials be arrested according to international law.“
Turley humorously wrote in his blogpost about the shy Cheneys:
“The aspect of this story that I love the most is the name of the group that was arranging Cheney’s visit on April 24th: Spectre. Yes, Spectre of Ernst Stavro Blofeld fame. Number 1 in this case was Ryan Ruppert of Spectre Live Corp. who explained that “[a]fter speaking with their security advisers, they changed their mind on coming to the event [and] decided it was better for their personal safety they stay out of Canada. It is not clear if Blofeld’s cat will make the trip instead.
Cheney could claim a curious victory in frustrating efforts to arrest him. In the words of Blofeld: “Such a pity. All that time and energy wasted, simply to provide you with one mock, heroic moment.” [Look into camera, pet cat, exit stage right]“
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BREAKING NEWS May 24, 2012
Report by Joan Bryden “Canada’s failure to arrest former U.S. president George W. Bush during a visit to B.C. is cited by Amnesty International in its annual report on human rights atrocities around the globe. At the time of Bush’s visit last October, Amnesty maintained the former president authorized the use of torture against detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, in Afghanistan and Iraq as the U.S. pursued its war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. It cited the use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” and cruel, degrading treatment, such as forcing detainees to remain in painful position, without sleep, for hours. As a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture… Canada has an obligation to take action against alleged violators, including Bush.”
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Bush Torture Indictment | Center for Constitutional Rights.
U.N. Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
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George W. Bush and The War On Terror – Report
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
Related articles
- 2010 for the 9/11 Attacks and War Crimes (NeoCons) (lissakr11humanelife.wordpress.com)
Bush Skips Town on secret ‘GET OUT OF JAIL FREE’ Card – Canada’s Cowardly Legal Lions Protecting ‘W’ from Justice?
COVERUP : B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond stays proceedings against Bush, posthaste! Without Reading It’s 69+ Pages First? **
Attorney General still has not given us any reasons in writing
: Senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights
George W. Bush was slipped a secret GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD from Canada‘s cowardly legal powers on 24 October, 2011 allowing the former U.S. president to once again slip through the fingers of justice fighters aiming to bring him in for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Bush’s 20 October speaking engagement at a hotel in Surrey, B.C. closed down city streets, commandeered phalanxes of special police protection officers and attracted hundreds of highly-vocal, sign-waving protestors railing against war crimes widely believed to have been perpetrated by the Bush administration. Even while the protestors were raising their voices against Bush, a British Columbia court official in Surrey accepted delivery from a group of human rights organizations of a scathing 69-page criminal indictment against Bush, and duly set a hearing date for January, 2012.
Things fizzled out from there:
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Canadian Centre for International Justice – criminal indictment filed against Bush
Matt Eisenbrandt, legal director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ), one of the intervening rights organizations, said in a press release the same day: ” Mere hours after a justice of the peace received the criminal information and the court set a hearing date for January, we received notice by phone that the Attorney General of British Columbia had already intervened in the case and stayed the proceedings against former President Bush, effectively ending the case.”
The indictment brought by the rights group, which comprises the New York based Center For Constitutional Justice, Amnesty International as well as the CCIJ lays out the harrowing case of four individuals who endured horrendous tortures including beatings, chaining to cell walls, being hung from walls or ceilings while handcuffed, lack of access to toilets, sleep, food and water-deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures, sensory overload and deprivation while captive in the hands of U.S. military forces. One of the men, Hassan Bin Attash, is still detained at Guantánamo. He has been imprisoned there without charge for more than nine years.
Eisenbrandt says the legal basis for the indictment is exceptionally strong, and the case should have been tried under the Criminal Code of Canada. ”A slap in the face to the four men who were brutally tortured by Mr. Bush’s government..” is how he describes the Attorney General’s underhanded scuttling of the case.
Shirley Bond is the Attorney General for the province of British Columbia. It was her office that intervened in the case and stayed the proceedings against Bush. Bond was named Attorney General on August 18, 2011. She serves as Attorney General on an interim basis. Bond’s assistant deputy attorney general,Robert W. G. Gillen, Q.C., has respsonded to this blogger’s enquiries regarding documentation and rationale behind her shutting down the case against Bush, but unsatisfactorily. Gillen’s letter is currently being reviewed and analyzed by a CCIJ lawyer. Click: link to the CCIJ critique.
◊This blogger is awaiting results of a Freedom of Information Request in search for possible dark politics at play protecting Bush from Justice in Canada.
Rookie, temporary B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond – behind secret Stay of Proceedings against Bush – Spook #2 protecting Bush?
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While an attorney general of a Canadian province is not required to take instruction from the federal AG, Bond’s brief tenure in the position and the tenderfoot status of the provincial government of which she is a member causes speculation about what influence the federal Attorney General’s office might have played in her decision. Canada’s present Conservative federal government led by prime minister Stephen Harper is known to have had congenial relations with the Bush administration, even in times of Bush’s deepest unpopularity and impending political death.
Federal AG Rob Nicholson – Spook #1 protecting Bush?
Federal Attorney General, Robert Nicholson, has not responded to enquiries from this blogger regarding possible political interference and his stance on investigating and apprehending Bush based on the stayed charges.
It’s a deafening silence.
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Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights said, “ The Attorney General still has not given us any reasons in writing for staying the case, but the speed with which it was done shows the case was not treated seriously.“
Gallagher brings forward the ever-present legal jeopardy that haunts George W. Bush these days. His world is shrinking around him :
“Mr. Bush will need to be exceedingly careful about where he travels. He has caused harm to so many – including those who were tortured in U.S.-run detention facilities – and he remains vulnerable to prosecution in any of the other 145 countries that have signed the Convention Against Torture, as long as the United States continues to breach its own obligations under the Convention.”
Canadian Maher Arar “renditioned” by U.S. sued and won damages from Canada
There is something that could explain why Canadian authorities are happy to let Bush breeze through with no fuss, no muss, and certainly no criminal indictments accepted. Canada itself has been complicit in Bush’s war ziggurat, and paid a price. Canada, like many other countries, once cooperated with Bush in various ways and now finds itself in a squeeze equally along with Mr. Bush. In 2002 a Canadian court awarded Canadian citizen Maher Arar $10 million in damages for the suffering he endured when he was illegally handed over by Canada to U.S. security forces, who then imposed “renditioning” on him – being shipped off to a third party country for torture. In a U.S. ‘black’ detention centre in Syria, Arar was beaten with electrical cables and held in a grave-like cell for 10 months. Arar is active now in investigating the U.S. and Syrian personnel who perpetrated these crimes against him.
Perhaps because of the heat raised by one case like Arar’s, now Canadian authorities feel shy, and sly, about not bothering with Bush.
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Let there be no mistake: the international hunt for Bush and his War On Terror cronies is real, widespread, and well-armed for Justice. More countries find themselves inexorably sucked into the Bush war crimes vortex. One big question to be settled is which countries ran secret, illegal prisons on their soil on behalf of Bush’s torture experts? Evidence girds the globe implicating Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland and Lithuania. Legal minds in those countries already are furiously cobbling together whatever legal defences they can muster against inevitable charges coming their way on this account.
Spanish prosecutors have already pressed criminal charges against six senior Bush administration officials who approved the harsh interrogation methods that detainees say were employed at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo Bay and other sites.
Last November, Italian courts convicted a CIA chief and 22 other Americans - all CIA operatives – in the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric who ended up in a secret prison in Egypt. The Americans were tried in absentia and aren’t expected to serve jail time. Still…the noose tightens.
One puzzlement is that, while other countries prepare to face war crimes charges, the one obvious suspect is utterly blithe on the subject. One Miami Herald headline said:
Other countries probe Bush-era torture, not U.S.
Could America consider herself immune from prosecution? What is Liberty thinking?
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
Related articles
Bush speaks in Canada, pockets $200,000, Smirks, Gives Justice the Slip!
Bush (Photo credit: CloCkWeRX)
♦COMING IN NEXT POST Breaking News: COVERUP: Canada’s Cowardly Legal Lions secretly shut-down criminal investigation into Bush war crimes. Leave no paper trail.
What did the 99% of Canadians who aren’t among the lucky one per cent at the top of the socio-economic ladder – but who turned out in their hundreds to give former U.S. president George W. Bush an energetic ”welcome he deserves” on October 20 - see of the man who some say is the world’s next war criminal overdue for a meeting with justice?
Bush, can you HEAR US? Too bad we’re out here, and HE’s in there. He must be in the one per cent!
The answer is this: George W. Bush slipped invisibly into the City of Surrey, B.C. accompanied by his fellow ex-president Bill Clinton, where the two were scheduled to speak at Surrey’s $650 per seat summit on regional economic development at the Sheraton Surrey hotel. Having slipped by the several hundred peaceful protestors surging around the hotel entrance, Bush immediately banned the media from the convention room; we can only guess what furtive peeks he might have taken outside at the chanting crowd.
Click↓ C’mon down to the demonstration. Get yer fair share of the noise:
Bush and Mr. Clinton spoke for about one hour to the summiteers. Bush then sortied out the front doors of the Sheraton towards a waiting car – waving like a rock star, (!!) likely still curious to get a closer look at the protestors. How many had he drawn? Such peeks at the outside world likely help confirm for Bush the timelessness of his draw as a celebrity, after so many years away from the White House. Like Paris Hilton, Bush is such an empty personality, he needs to know that someone notices him. It makes him feel like a real person.
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Insulting protest signs greeted Bush. Bush gave back “the smirk.”
Why did Canadians give Bush “the welcome he deserved“: boos, taunts, insults and all manner of scornful signs decrying his administration’s war in Iraq? Why is Bush such a marked target for protestors?
Book: Bush On The Couch
This blogger is not alone in his cynical views about George W. Bush. Many books have been written trying to get inside the man’s head. The most accessible of them is “Bush On The Couch,” by psychoanalyst Justin A. Frank.
In his 2004 book Frank writes: “As a psychoanalyst I’m troubled by [the] president’s current and future mental health.” The author explores “the smirk heard around the world,” particularly in reference to how often “the smirk” was employed by Bush as governor of Texas when sending death row prisoners to their execution:
“Bush’s trademark smirk makes his sadism easy to spot…At once arrogant and cowardly [the smirk puts] the nation on notice that the act of inflicting pain – and the good fortune of having a job that allow[s] it within the laws of the land – brought Governor Bush a certain pleasure that he couldn’t quite stop himself from expressing.“
Bush’s strut to his waiting car at the Sheraton was spoiled by a loud protestor who shouted out at him: “Hey Bush. How does it feel to be a big fat war criminal?” In response, Bush gave his infamous smirk! Some things never change.
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Dear reader, when Bush is in the City of Surrey, he is on Canadian soil. When he deploys that sadistic Bush “smirk” on our streets, there is a problem. If you, dear reader are a citizen of the United States of America, I have faith in your individual acumen to recognize why Canadians hold the former president in such deep derision, and why we protest his presence here.
The “smirk heard around the world”
The “problem” is not Americans, it is George W. Bush’s America. His imperial arrogance and slightly moronic hauteur…never mind for the moment his war crimes …are justification enough for our antipathy.
We come by our national phobia for people like Bush honestly. Bush is, in fact, the very antithesis of his own folksy assessment of some people he meets: Bush himself is not “good people.” Russian demi-autocrat Vladimir Putin, however, garnered the “good people” seal of approval from Bush! So much for Bush’s self-proclaimed instinct for astutely assessing personalities upon first meeting.
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Bush is the kind of guest who can’t leave soon enough…
…He entered Canada commandeering vast Canadian security resources for his personal protection; he set about peddling such dubious expertise as he claims to have in the area of economics, of all things (this from the man who nearly wrecked the world economy)! He orders the media out of the room. Ultimately, Bush took off carrying a bag full of cash for his jackanape quickie-commerce. The City of Surrey refuses to reveal Bush’s speaking fee, but it’s estimated to have been in the order of $200,000. In fairness, Bill Clinton was likely paid the same amount. (Everything any member of the Bush family has ever affected is cloaked in secrecy, including George W’s own White House papers, so no big surprise here. But it is confounding that Bush’s paranoiac demand for secrecy should apply to a foreign country.)
Canadian Centre for International Justice – criminal indictment filed against Bush
The protest at the Sheraton was specifically aimed at outing Bush’s culpability in the perpetration of war crimes, specifically torture, associated with the War On Terror.
The Canadian Center for International Justice (CCIJ) filed a criminal indictment against Bush timed to synchronize exactly with the protest at the Sheraton, for his alleged criminal complicity in the torture of prisoners,
At the time of writing, disposition of the CCIJ’s indictment is unkown – over the weekend – but there is the possibility, though slim, that Bush may now be a fugitive from Canadian law.
But the Sheraton crowd’s anger over Bush’s alleged war crimes spills over into a broader unrest, a simmering stew of general gut-felt loathing of Bush’s Imperial America: its illegal wars, the bald-faced contempt for international law, broken treaties, bad faith trade pacts. And the startling spectacle of the top executive of the United States denying any responsibility for, or having had any inkling of a warning about the events on September 11, 2001. We all know now that Bush brushed off a clear warning delivered to him by a security briefer about an al Qaeda plot to use commercial aircraft as missiles to attack American tall buildings, imminently, a very short time before the awful events unfolded. Oh! The Humanity. Oh! The Stupidity!
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Bush lives now in a shrinking world. Everywhere he goes criminal charges await him.
Have you seen the little piggies? I saw so many at the Sheraton I felt dizzy. But Where Was George?
Chronology of the War Crimes Hunt For George W. Bush
George Bush named in criminal complaint by two torture victims. At the last minute Bush cancels his speaking engagement in Geneva. He knows that in Switzerland no preliminary investigation can begin against an accused if accused is not present in the country. The complainants had no choice but to drop their complaint. Bush won’t be visiting Switzerland again.
Canada, October, 2011
A Gang of Four: the New York based Centre for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, the Canadian Centre for International Justice, and four private individuals present Rob Nicholson, Attorney General for Canada, Jason Kenney, minister for immigration and refugees for Canada, Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada and (timed to coincide with Bush’s speaking engagement in the City of Surrey) the provincial court in the City of Surrey, B.C. with a 69-page criminal indictment against Bush alleging his authorization, condonation, oversight, aiding and abetting, and failing to prevent or punish acts of extraordinary rendition, punching, kicking, isolation in “coffin cells” for prolonged periods of time, solitary confinement, forced nudity, and water boarding of prisoners.
More piggies all in a row
So far Canadian leaders have lacked the political will to act on the charges brought against Bush. So Bush skipped the City of Surrey unimpeded with a rich pay packet for a one hour speech, and likely feeling some trepidation about another close brush with the law. ♦COMING IN NEXT POST Breaking News:
COVERUP: Canada’s Cowardly Legal Lions secretly shut-down criminal investigation into Bush war crimes. Leave no paper trail.
Cops and protestors kept their cool at the Sheraton
Shooters on the roof! George Bush must be one of the most nervous people in the world. What a production, for one ugly Texan!!
Mind you, not everyone here is happy to have you in town.
Remember these shoes? We got more….
Bush News Flash – Amnesty International to Canadian Government: Detain, Investigate George W. Bush for War Crimes
Nemesis—The Last Days of the American Republic (Photo credit: Earthworm)
Canada (Photo credit: palindrome6996)
Bush Must be Detained 
: Amnesty International to Canadian Government
“Arrest George W. Bush“: Amnesty International to Canadian Government
read full 24H Vancouver story online - select date Oct 7, navigate to p.6.
Metro Vancouver has been abuzz in recent days with rumours and hearsay of how Canada might arrest top officials of the Bush administration as they try to enter Canada in the near future.
Newspapers across Canada over the weekend carried front-page stories passing an urgent message to the Government of Canada from Amnesty International: Canada has a legal “obligation” to detain and investigate George W. Bush for alleged War Crimes. The former U.S. president will attempt to enter Canada on 20 October, 2011 for a speaking engagement at a regional economic summit in the border city of Surrey, B.C. The City of Surrey is a member city of Metro Vancouver. Former president William J. Clinton is scheduled to appear with Bush at the summit in Surrey.
Cheney’s visits to Canada drew protestors
The upset surrounding the former American leaders began 26 September when former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney spoke to The Bon Mot book club in Vancouver to promote his recently published memoirs. At the posh Club Vancouver, protestors obstructed entry to the $500-a-plate event. The next day, in Calgary, Alberta, Cheney again drew protestors at a second promotional dinner and speech.
In the meantime, numerous human rights organizations have been bombarding the government of Canada with demands to apply its immigration laws banning or detaining persons who have been deemed by the government of Canada to be, among other things, “accused of international crimes, torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity“ under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, sec 35(1) (a) equally to all people. To date, Bush administration officials have been given carte blanche to enter and leave Canada with impunity. Conservative prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, has always been sympatico with Bush and the controversial “War on Terror.” Before the Harper government (first elected in 2006), Liberal Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien refused to join Bush’s rush to invade Iraq in 2003.
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Water boarding torture – Trivialized by Cheney
A perfect storm may now be building head. This latest contingency places Mr. Bush exactly where human rights organizations have been waiting to have him: in the hands of a democratic foreign country willing to stand up to a leader who led the U.S. into an illegal war in Iraq, and is alleged to have approved numerous war crimes. Torture tops the list of the alleged war crimes.
At least four large organizations have been pressuring Canada to arrest or ban Bush officials: Vancouver-based Lawyers Against the War, The StopWar Coalition, the New York–based Center for Constitutional Rights, and London-based Amnesty International have all recently lobbied Canada’s immigration minister, Jason Kenney, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Dianne Watts, the mayor of The City of Surrey to insist that authorities apply Canadian immigration law to all persons equally.
At the present time one Canadian citizen serving time at Guantanamo prison in Cuba for killing a U.S. soldier finds himself right at the centre of the clash between the U.S. and Canada. Omar Khadr was “renditioned” – shipped overseas to a third world country for torture – by the U.S. and is now working with Amnesty International to try to get home to Canada. Progress has been non-existent for Khadr. The Americans show no inclination to repatriate a prisoner taken under the auspices of the War on Terror.
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Toronto Sun story
Read full Toronto Sun article online.
The Toronto Sun newspaper carried the story of the upcoming potential contretemps between the two countries in its October 9 edition.
Bryn Weese, of the Sun’s parliamentary bureau wrote: 
Amnesty Internatioanal is calling on the federal government to detain and investigate George W. Bush for war crimes. In fact, the organisation says the government has “an obligation” to do it…“The government of Canada has an obligation to start an investigation into former U.S. president George W. Bush’s alleged involvement in , and responsibility for crimes under internernational law, including torture, while he is visiting Canada on 20 October,” according to a press release from the organization sent out Thursday.
Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney has bristled at the growing pressures brought upon him by activists. He had a heated exchange of letters with Amnesty International over the weekend, in which he told the organization he is “disappointed” in their dogged pursuit of Bush officials. Kenney wrote that Amnesty International is “squandering” its own moral authority.
At the very least, October 20 is going to be a day of tensions in Canada as activists do their best to push Canadian government officials to action, while attempting to cause as much embarassment to both sides in the international squabble as they possibly can.
Based on the present Canadian government’s past close relations with the Bush administration, activists are facing an uphill battle in trying to persuade Canada to bring the Americans to justice.
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
Related articles
- UN Receives Complaint Over Canada’s Failure To Arrest Bush – 19 November 2012 (lucas2012infos.wordpress.com)
Bush War Criminals Not Welcome in Canada: The Gloves Come Off. Vancouver lawyer seeks Dick Cheney’s arrest as War Criminal; Bush on No-Entry list too!
Ghoulish war criminal Cheney not wanted in Canada
This blogger writes:
Canadians are assailing federal minister of immigration Jason Kenney to BAN former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney’s imminent entry into Canada to address a speakers’ club.
But the anti-Cheney protest is just the first round. Canadians’ legendary meekness seems about to turn to fierce direct action against the entire George W. Bush administration. A group of Canadian lawyers has launched an initiative to have former U.S. president George W. Bush declared a War Criminal too, and to be banned from entering Canada.
The Vancouver, B.C. speakers’ club, “The Bon Mot” has the notorious former V.P scheduled to speak on 26 September. Ironically (and perhaps predictably!) the ghoulish Cheney’s address is already sold out. Morbid curiosity always attracts people to roadside crashes, doesn’t it?
So far, the following official parties have raised the alarum against hosting Bush and Cheney in Canada: Amnesty International, Lawyers Against the War, and the Hon. Don Davies, critic for Immigration of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. They want to stop Cheney from completing this engagement because of Cheney’s oft- admitted approval and oversight of torture against unindicted and illegaly detained civilians in the U.S’ “War On Terror.”
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This blogger wrote to minister Kenney regarding the scheduled appearance of Cheney in Vancouver:
Dear Minister Kenney,
Your portfolio encompasses the oversight and proper administration of certain Canadian laws relevant to Refusal of Entry to Canada of persons deemed by the government of Canada to be, among other things, “accused of international crimes, torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.” Impending, on 26 Sept, 2011, is a scheduled visit of former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney to the City of Vancouver to speak to a curiously blithe private club, the “Bon Mot Club.”
Ban war criminal Cheney from Canada
But this visit can in no way be seen as a “bon événement” for Vancouver, for the province of B.C. or for Canadians in general.
Canadian Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney
Click the following link to read Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson, of “Lawyers Against the War” on Cheney and Bush, in The Georgia Straight:
Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson seeks Dick Cheney’s arrest | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com.
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“Lawyers Against the War” also produced a six-page legal brief sent to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and his top advisers singularly denying the appropriateness of allowing former U.S. president George W. Bush to enter Canada. Click here to download the document.
Canadians' gloves off. Ban Bush's War Criminals from Canada!
Here is a brief extract of the document:
George W. Bush is reported to be coming to Surrey, B.C. on October 20, 2011 at the invitation of Surrey Mayor Diane Watts. There is overwhelming evidence that George W. Bush as President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces aided, abetted and counselled the torture of non-Americans at U.S. controlled prisons outside the U.S. including but not limited to Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Bagram prison in Afghianistan and other places…
- We are writing to report that George W. Bush, former President of the United States, is inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), sec 35(1) (a) because of overwhelming evidence that he has ‘committed,’ outside Canada, torture and other offences referred to in sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWC).
- the George W. Bush administration is known to have engaged in systematic gross human rights violations, or a war crime against humanity within the meaning of subsection 6(3) to (5) of the CAHWC
- We request that you…ensure that the RCMP War Crimes Secition immediately takes the following steps:
- begin an investigation of George W. Bush for aiding, abetting and counselling torture between November 13, 2001 and November 2008 at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba…and
- acknowledge that the George W. Bush’s administration was a “government that has engaged in torture and other war crimes and crimes against humanity, and therefore GWB…is inadmissible under section 35(1) (b) of the IRPA
Click here to download the complete document.
Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper. Sympatico with Bush
Will the Conservative, Bush-friendly Canadian government really move to ban Bush and Cheney from Canada? Not likely. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is known to have been sympatico with the Bush White House, so, barring riots in the streets or some such violent eruption of public protest in Canada, Harper will make this issue just go away. That’s the sad realpolitik of it!
BUT…..
…meanwhile, local antiwar activists are planning to give Cheney “the welcome he deserves”. The StopWar Coalition is calling for a protest starting at 5:30 p.m. outside the event at the Vancouver Club. And Human Rights Watch has lately been bringing pressure to bear upon Canada to investigate Bush and Cheney for Crimes Against Humanity.
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
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