OPINION: PM feared Galloway’s message, By Linda McQuaig
George Galloway. (Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty)
Anyone who has ever seen George Galloway in action knows why he had to be stopped at the border. He definitely poses a threat – although not the security one alleged by the Harper government.
Rather, Galloway, a five-times elected member of the British Parliament, poses a threat to Stephen Harper’s ability to sell Canadians on our involvement in the Afghan war and on Ottawa’s support for Israel in its battle against the Palestinians.
Galloway is a fierce, effective critic on both fronts. With the mental toughness of Noam Chomsky and the showmanship of Mick Jagger, Galloway slices through the pro-war apologetics of political leaders like a knife through warm butter.
So it’s not surprising Harper wasn’t keen about Galloway coming to Canada. Even without the controversy of the ban, Galloway promised to attract huge audiences and stir up the kind of anti-war feeling that brought thousands onto Canadian streets last January to protest Israel’s bombing of Gaza, and Ottawa’s refusal to condemn it.
Media commentators have missed the point by treating the ban as purely a free-speech issue, and suggesting Galloway should be heard, despite his odious views.
Galloway’s views aren’t odious. In fact, they’re in sync with millions of Canadians. In a recent Angus Reid poll, 48 per cent of Canadians wanted our troops brought home from Afghanistan before the scheduled 2011 withdrawal. A BBC poll showed Canadians have more negative than positive views of Israel – even before the Gaza bombing, which UN human rights investigator Richard Falk said last month “would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude.”
It was fear of Galloway galvanizing anti-war sentiment in peace-oriented Canadians that prompted Ottawa to brand him a terrorist supporter – for providing urgently needed cash and medical supplies to Hamas, the democratically elected government in Gaza. As a result, Galloway only appeared in Canada via videolink from the United States, where he was allowed to move about freely and address packed houses, apparently without threatening U.S. national security.
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Tags: Afghan war, Afghanistan, Gaza, George Galloway, national security, Ottawa, Stephen Harper
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