CBC Morning Humor Show - George Galloway Version
The CBC called it a news report, but it was pretty funny, largely because of its trembling adherence to the Galloway side of the story, as Galloway's lawyer bids today to have a Federal Court rule against Canadian Immigration's letter to him, apparently elicited by Galloway's staff, suggesting that as a terrorist supporter, he was likely ineligible for admission to Canada.The buffonery starts with the assertion that he was turned back on an attempt to enter Canada. This is NOT what happened, as Terry Glavin points out over and over again, in particular here, where he corrects Christopher Hitchens, who credulously reads Canadian media.
In his letter, Orr noted that Galloway was not expected to make his Canadian appointments before March 30, and so he extended to Galloway the further courtesy of inviting him to make a submission to address his preliminary assessment of inadmissibility. The alternative would be that a Border Services Agency official might find himself obliged to make a final determination at some border crossing, informed only by the preliminary assessment, but without the benefit of a submission from Galloway himself. Orr also suggested an alternative to Galloway, to apply for a Temporary Resident Permit, but he also showed Galloway the further kindness of letting him know that it would be unlikely that such an application would succeed.Perish the thought that anyone report the actual story!
Instead of proceeding as he was so politely invited, Galloway had a Canadian law firm dash off a letter to Orr that included a citation from Galloway's Wikipedia entry, a denial that he was a member of Hamas, a complaint about Ottawa's affections for Israel, and several other subject-changing diversions. The letter did not deny (because it could not deny) what Galloway had openly boasted of doing.
Galloway hasn't even tried to enter Canada, remember. Instead, he has taken the opportunity to combine with his Canadian admirers to exploit the gullibility and general slovenliness of the press in order to tell a pack of lies, monger a lurid conspiracy theory about a secret plot hatched in Ottawa to silence critics of Canada’s engagements in Afghanistan, fabricate a free-speech controversy, and blame it all on the Jews.
To add to the humor, the CBC 'News' called Galloway a peace activist, a description so ludicrous that only someone wilfully determined to side with Galloway could use it.
To further get me laughing, they cite Jason Kenney, and then make an assertion about the existence of some -mails, which assertion is implied to contradict Kenney but does nothing of the sort.
To really get me rolling they quote Galloway that his donation to Hamas was humanitarian aid. This is almost as silly as calling Galloway a 'peace activist', as I suspect to less gullible audiences Galloway provides more accurate self-descriptions. Glavin again:
Fiction, reported in the Globe and Mail: "I didn’t give any money to Hamas, I gave it to the ministry of health in Gaza to pay for the salaries of the doctors and nurses who hadn’t been paid. By the way, we’re talking about 20 odd thousand pounds, not millions. It’s a symbolic donation. I gave it to the ministry of health in Gaza and I’m proud to have done so."I'm grateful for the CBC's determination to continue providing comedy shows on the radio, even if in a subtly masked form.
Fact, by Galloway's own admission, broadcast on several Arab television stations: "I, now, here, on behalf of myself, my sister Yvonne Ridley, and the two Respect councillors – Muhammad Ishtiaq and Naim Khan – are giving three cars and 25,000 pounds in cash to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Here is the money. This is not charity. This is politics." Not charity, but politics. Not to "doctors and nurses who hadn’t been paid," but to the Hamas gangster "Prime Minister" Ismail Haniyeh who, in fact, is not and was not the Prime Minister of Palestine.
Now personally, I don't much care whether Galloway enters the country. He needs an audience, I expect, as I imagine only Islamists listen to him in the UK, and maybe not so much them even. Last time he was here he had Jack Layton and Olivia Chow watching, and studiously not repudiating the clown publicly (I asked my local NDP MPP to check this out). No doubt he'll have similarly silly people in his audience, lapping up his lies and bombast, and that makes for great entertainment. He'll just whip up the usual suspects, and they are able to whip themselves up without his help.
posted by Alan Adamson @ 9:37 AM
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