Login / RegisterVancouver lawyer says she'll try to stop George W. Bush from visiting Surrey
A Vancouver lawyer says she will send a dossier on former U.S. president George W. Bush to the Canadian war-crime investigation unit in advance of his visit to Surrey later this year.
Gail Davidson, cofounder of Lawyers Against the War, told the Straight by phone that she'll also send copies to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, and "try to make a little bit more effective noise about keeping him out of the country this time".
Davidson offered her comments in response to Surrey mayor Dianne Watts's announcement today that Bush and former U.S. president Bill Clinton will speak at the fourth annual Surrey Regional Economic Summit later this year.
"It's shocking," Davidson said. "She can't be that out of touch that she doesn't realize that they've committed hideous war crimes—even if you just look at Iraq alone."
Davidson pointed out that University of Illinois international legal scholar Francis Boyle is trying to get Swiss authorities in Geneva to arrest Bush, who will land there this month.
Meanwhile, some of Clinton's critics, including Osgoode Hall law professor Michael Mandel, have claimed that his administration committed war crimes in the Balkans by attacking Yugoslavia without the authorization of the UN Security Council.
In 2004, a group of activists, journalists, legal scholars, human-rights specialists, and academics formed the BRussels Tribunal, which is a nongovernmental organization that is trying to hold public officials accountable for committing war crimes in Iraq.
"When the group from the BRussels Tribunal brought the action in the Spanish courts in the fall of 2009, Clinton was one of the people named in their complaint," Davidson said. "He was named specifically for his actions in the sanctions in Iraq....Myself, I would concentrate on George Bush because I know so much more about him."
In 2004, Davidson filed a private prosecution charging Bush with seven torture-related offences under the Criminal Code of Canada while he was on a state visit to Canada. In a secret hearing in Vancouver Provincial Court, Judge William Kitchen ruled that those charges were a "nullity", which meant they never technically existed in law.
Nobody likes war. George Bush isn't the President anymore - protest if you like, but the rest of this doesn't mean anything. If you want Canadians out of Afghanistan (we never went to Iraq) - Obama is still in Afghanistan - then tell your MP you want to know his position on Afghanistan -and let the rest of these folks have their talk in Surrey.
To bad we have a Conservative government in Canada that if they had a majority goverment would be totally supporting his policy's. At least she can get some exposure against him great !
I would say George Bush and his cronies are in the same league as Hitler.
If Vermont (within the US) can do make it clear, why can't we?
There are several places in the world that Bush, for all of his residual power and influence, can't visit. Canada should be one of them.
http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/65/65.htm
Go Gail go.
He should be either arrested or banned entry.
either that or we are a total joke as a country and might as well throw everything we stand for out the window. turning the other cheek on torture is reprehensible.
Diane Watts is disgusting for hosting this blood money buffet, i am sure she is looking at her political future by appeasing these scumbags.
Bush at an Economic Forum ?
Seriously ?
This is garbage.
What's Diane Watts smoking ?
Whalley Crack ?
Forget the fact that he's a bonafide war criminal and admitted torturer , Diane's future political career is whats important.
scum.
Anyone with a internet connection can learn about the lies that lead to war and the torture program in about 15 minutes.
What's her excuse ?
The comments about Bush being like Hitler and being a war criminal and all the usual mentally deficient lefty stupidity, I expected.
But to imply that the UN is any sort of authority and an "legitimize" any conflict is, quite simply, insane.
Face it, fools, the left have spent the last two generations confirming:
- they invariably take the WRONG side in a conflict;
- their rhetoric is overblown nonsense;
- they are completely uninterested in any facts that might moderate their position;
- their own rhetoric is far nastier than that of the center or the right.
All this while they at the same time accuse their opponents of the worst possible deeds.
I guess if yer gonna lie, might as well lie big, huh? You idiots.
Maybe Bush can give some tips how to win the war on marijuana and give pointers how to further side-step basic freedoms and constitutional rights.
Maybe the Surrey mayor will start water boarding all suspects of marijuana grow shows, build more jails, create bigger gaps between rich and poor, and... hey, why not just become part of America? Surrey does straddle the border...
When Bush et al have been cleared by this court, I support the right of dough-heads that want toinvite them to Canada (and those that might wish to protest against them). But till then, he should be arrested if he sets foot in Canada, and delivered to the Hague for fair trial.
Think: what message does "being above the law" send?
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