Oct. 14, 2009 - Issue #730: North of Nowhere
George Bush Protest
Anti-war activists call for arrest of former-US president Bush ahead of Edmonton visit
By the time his tumultuous eight years in office came to a close, the
Republican's grip on the Oval Office swept emphatically away by a soaring
oratory promising change and hope which found fertile ground amongst the
electorate of an economically devastated, globally distrusted and war-weary
United States, George W. Bush was widely considered to be the most unpopular
president in the history of the republic. And this, keep in mind, is a nation
that gave the world Richard Nixon.
Despite his legacy—which included the invasion of both Afghanistan and
Iraq, a "global war on terror" which led to a troubling erosion of civil
liberties in the US and around the world, the use of extraordinary rendition
and torture, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib—within two months of leaving
office Bush made his first official post-presidential speech on this side of
the 49th parallel, collecting an estimated $150 000 to speak to an
audience of 1500 in downtown Calgary.
But outside the invitation-only event last March was a throng of protesters
calling for the arrest of Bush for war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed by his administration. It's a call which anti-war and human rights
activists will be repeating next week in Edmonton, Saskatoon and
Montréal when Bush returns to Canada for another round of speaking
engagements.
"I’m absolutely appalled that he will be coming here for the second
time [since March] and that our government doesn’t live up to its own
laws," says Marie Chidley, a member of the Edmonton Coalition Against War and
Racism (ECAWAR), which is organizing a public protest to greet Bush's October
20 stop in the city. "He’s a war criminal. He leaves a legacy of war
and aggression, and we need to get out there and make our position known.
When this war criminal comes among us and speaks at a local conference
centre, I think it’s important that we get out there and call for
democracy and justice. If we can’t find a means to bring these war
criminals to court, to justice, how do we go on from a human point of
view?"
Holding Bush to account for his actions while president has been a
five-year effort for Vancouver-based attorney Gail Davidson, a member of the
Canadian arm of the international group Lawyers Against the War (LAW).
Starting in advance of a November 2004 visit by then-president Bush to
Canada, LAW has repeatedly called on the Canadian government to either bar
Bush from entering Canada under Section 35 of the Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act, which says that people suspected of involvement in war
crimes, crimes against humanity or other gross human rights violations are
inadmissible to Canada, or arrest him if he is admitted into the
country.
"If the Canadian Border Services Agency has received credible information
about a person suspected of human rights violations, then [CBSA agents have]
the duty to bar them from entry and remove them from the country," Davidson
explains over the phone from Vancouver. As it did in advance of Bush's visit
to Calgary in March, Davidson's organization has once again sent letters to a
range of Canadian officials arguing that Bush should not be allowed to enter
the country under the terms of the act.
"We focused on torture just because I thought that it was better to focus on
a well-reported-on and evidenced allegation, and torture is both a war crime
and a crime against humanity," she explains. "The test for reasonable grounds
under that section is, according to the Supreme Court of Canada, that it is
more than a suspicion and something less than proof, to the balance of
probabilities. And the person doesn’t have to have had direct
participation in the crime, they just have to be complicit in it in some
way."
If someone suspected of war crimes is allowed to enter Canada, Davidson adds,
it becomes the obligation of law enforcement agencies to arrest them.
"One of the reasons for barring people suspected of complicity in these
crimes is that the way that the law is set up in Canada is that once a
suspect enters Canada, the crime or crimes are then in law deemed to have
been committed in Canada, and then the law enforcement agencies in Canada are
bound to act to arrest and prosecute or remove the person. And they
can’t do anything else," she says.
While LAW's efforts have thus far been dismissed on procedural grounds by the
courts or almost completely ignored by Canadian officials—and she
doesn't realistically expect a different outcome ahead of Bush's October 20
arrival—Davidson argues that actions aimed at calling on the Canadian
government to live up to its international obligations are important, and
similar to historical efforts aimed at ensuring the enforcement of civil
rights or environmental legislation.
"Since the Second World War, the laws regarding personal culpability for war
crimes and the crimes themselves are all new. This is big change in the law
that says the people in charge will be personally responsibility," she says.
"Those conventions have been agreed to internationally, then ratifying
countries like Canada have made them part of their laws. However, the next
step, enforcement, is another whole step. Whenever there’s a big change
like that there’s a lot of effort before the enforcement stage happens.
And so I see that’s what we’re doing now, we’re in that
stage. And it’ll certainly take time." V
Tue, Oct 20 (4 pm – 7 pm)
George Bush Go Home! War criminals are not welcome in Canada!
Rally
Shaw Conference Centre (9797 Jasper Ave)
For full details visit ecawar.org
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