Dick Cheney must be barred entry to Canada, Vancouver MP Don Davies says

In a calm and measured voice, Vancouver Kingsway MP Don Davies today (September 23) declared that former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney should be barred from entering Canada.

Davies was speaking at a news conference held at the W2 Media Café in downtown Vancouver, which saw peace activist Derrick O’Keefe, lawyer Gail Davidson, and global peace advocate Blake MacLeod deliver statements about Cheney’s Monday (September 26) speaking engagement at the Vancouver Club.

The federal NDP’s immigration critic outlined the case why Cheney should not be allowed to waltz into town based on the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Davies cited Section 35 of this law, which states in part that a foreign national is inadmissible for entry into Canada if the person is “a prescribed senior official in the service of a government that, in the opinion of the Minister, engages or has engaged in terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violations, or genocide, a war crime or a crime against humanity within the meaning of subsections 6(3) to (5) of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act”.

A lawyer, Davies also cited Section 36 of IRPA that provides in part that a person is also inadmissible if the individual was responsible for “an act outside Canada that is an offence in the place where it was committed and that, if committed in Canada, would constitute an offence under an Act of Parliament punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years”.

Davies said that he wrote Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney today to remind the federal government that it has the responsibility to “uphold the law”.

According to Davies, the former American vice president has openly and unapologetically admitted that he did not stop acts of torture perpetrated against perceived enemies of the U.S.

Davies said that he considers practices like waterboarding, or simulated drowning, and sleep deprivation as acts of torture.

“Torture is a serious crime. It is a war crime. It is a crime against humanity,” said Davies, who was enthusiastically applauded after delivering his statement.