mr. nafta has always seemed like one of our slimiest prime ministers

Mulroney-Schreiber probe finally going public

Updated Mon. Mar. 30 2009 11:14 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

An inquiry began Monday into the questionable business dealings between German arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber and former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

The Ottawa inquiry began with Bill McKnight, Mulroney's former defence minister, as the first witness scheduled to appear before the hearing led by Justice Jeffrey Oliphant.

Marc Lalonde, a former Liberal minister, will follow. Lalonde became a friend and business associate of Schreiber and posted $100,000 in bail for him while he fought extradition proceedings.

Many have complained that the inquiry, estimated to cost $14 million, is an expensive process that will reveal few new details about the relationship.

However, CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said the inquiry, which is led by a judge who has subpoena powers, should finally put to rest lingering questions about their relations.

It will focus on hundreds of thousands in payments made by Schreiber to Mulroney after he left the PMO but was still an MP, and whether laws were broken in that exchange.

Mulroney claims he was paid $225,000 in 1993 -- after he left office -- to lobby foreign leaders for their support of a project to build armoured vehicles in Nova Scotia.

Schreiber claims he paid Mulroney three cash payments of $100,000 each for his help and that the deal was made while Mulroney was still prime minister.

Schreiber contends that no work was ever done for the money, and that Mulroney was supposed to lobby Ottawa, not foreign leaders. If the allegation is true, it could represent a possible breach of federal ethics rules.

Mulroney has said that accepting the money was the biggest mistake of his life.

"What the judicial inquiry is trying to determine is whether there was any quid-pro-quo, if any of this money might have been linked to when he was prime minister," Fife said.

There are also questions about why it took Mulroney eight years to declare the income and pay tax on it, and whether income tax laws were broken in the process.

"We will get to the bottom of this whole Mulroney- Schreiber cash payment because this is a judicial inquiry, the people who are holding the inquiry are all very experienced lawyers," Fife said.

"They're going to follow the evidence, people will have to testify under oath and they will have subpoena powers. so I think we will finally get to the bottom of this issue."

Schreiber is expected to take the stand in mid-April. Mulroney is scheduled to follow in May, before the inquiry wraps up in June.

After that, Schreiber is expected to be deported to his home country of Germany, where he faces a long list of charges and could spend the rest of his life in prison, if convicted.

The charges he faces in Germany are for fraud, bribery and tax-evasion arising from other deals.

He has been allowed to remain in Canada in order to participare inthe Oliphant inquiry.

Fife said it is in Schreiber's best interest to remain in Canada, and he wouldn't be surprised if he found a way to extend his time here.

The hearing comes 16 months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper first promised an inquiry.

our health isn't as important as big chemical under nafta

Will NAFTA exterminate Canadian pesticide bans?

Updated Sun. Mar. 29 2009 7:10 AM ET

Parminder Parmar, CTV.ca News

A battle brewing over cosmetic pesticides between one of North America's biggest chemical companies and Canadian lawmakers may end up re-shaping the future of Canada's environmental policies in the years ahead.

Next month, Onatario is set to become the second province in the country (after Quebec) to ban the sale and use of most off-the-shelf cosmetic pesticides.

"The ban would eliminate the use of conventional pesticides for cosmetic purposes on lawns, gardens, school yards and parks," says an Ontario government press release. That means 250 products containing one or more chemicals on a list of prohibited materials will be pulled out of stores by Earth Day on April 22.

Environmental and health advocates hail the provincial bans as big steps in protecting public safety and children. But the pesticide prohibitions are not sitting well with the Dow Chemical Company. When Quebec enacted similar regulations, the Dow AgroSciences unit of the company filed a notice of action against Ottawa claiming the Quebec legislation violates NAFTA.

Dow's fight is centred on one chemical in particular: 2,4-D, which is used as one of the world's most common herbicides. Dow says it's safe if used according to instructions.

But proponents of the pesticide ban say studies have shown that 2, 4-D is linked with cancer, neurological impairment and other health problems. They say putting the chemical into herbicides, which are then thrown onto fields and lawns, doesn't make sense.

"This is a no-brainer," Lisa Gue of the David Suzuki Foundation told CTV.ca.

"This is a completely unnecessary source of chemical exposure. It just makes sense that in a world where we are surrounded by so many chemicals to ban unnecessary ones."

Gue and her colleagues have been working with Equiterre, a Quebec-based environmental group that's pushing Ottawa to fight back hard if Dow continues its plans against the Quebec ban. They say their fight is larger than a single chemical or company, arguing that Canadians should be allowed to decide for themselves what is in the best interest of public safety -- especially when it comes to kids.

"Children are more affected because of their physiology and behaviour," said Hugo Seguin, a coordinator at Equiterre.

"Children are children -- they play in the grass and mud and they put their hands on their mouths... Canadians are concerned about public health and health of their children. This is what it's all about."

Conflicting science?

Claude-André Lachance, the director of public policy for Dow Canada, told CTV.ca that Canada's pesticides management agency and other researchers have concluded that 2, 4-D is safe if used appropriately.

"What is relevant is that those agencies, after conducting thorough reviews, have concluded this product is safe if used according to label. Our contention is that the Quebec government did not use a thorough and robust process to determine the safety of 2, 4-D ... It is basically an arbitrary decision," he said.

That's why the company filed a notice of intent to take action under chapter 11 of NAFTA, Lachance adds, noting the Quebec ban sends a bad message to the business community.

"(It) does not meet due process that is conducive to investment and innovation and accountable government," he said.

Gue said the fact that all the scientific reports are not conclusive or completed does not mean that the chemical is safe.

"It's true there is uncertainty around the science. But this is in effect an unnecessary risk. When it comes to lawn pesticides it is an unacceptable risk. It's just not worth the risk to children's health when all we want to do is kill dandelions," she said.

Lachance noted that the company is now in discussions with Ottawa to resolve the issue. However, he added that if an acceptable resolution isn't worked out, the company will move ahead "in the next few weeks" in an effort to settle the matter through the NAFTA process.

"It is certainly Dow AgroSciences' intention to follow with a notice for arbitration if the matter cannot be resolved through those discussions. That's where it stands basically," he said.

That has mobilized Canadian groups who have banded together to fight the corporation. In Quebec, they've started a letter-writing campaign to Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day. On March 24, Equiterre and other groups also appeared before a federal committee looking into the pesticide bans and their implications for NAFTA.

Environmentalists fear that if the pesticide bans in Quebec and Ontario are overturned there will be implications for governments across Canada. Prince Edward Island is considering putting its own pesticide ban on the books, as is New Brunswick. There are also municipalities across the country that have banned the use of cosmetic pesticides.

"We think the governments have a right to regulate to protect public health and the environment. This restriction is not specific to Dow Chemicals," Gue said.

"If it is the case that NAFTA prevents governments from protecting public health from unnecessary chemical exposures, then I have to conclude there is a problem with the way that agreement is written or being interpreted."

stop the gang violence.....legalize drugs!

Ahead of 2010 Olympics, violence stalks Vancouver

By JEREMY HAINSWORTH Associated Press Writer

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Mar 28th, 2009 | VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With its spectacular bay and stunning, snowcapped peaks, Vancouver easily ranks as one of the world's most beautiful cities. But in recent months, the people of Canada's Olympic city have been living in fear.

Even as Vancouver prepares to host the 2010 Winter Games, its crime rate is going up. Since January alone, there have been 45 shootings in the region, 17 of them fatal. There were 58 murders last year in this region of 2.7 million people, up from 41 the year before, according to the regional Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

"It's terrifying," says Doris Luong, who lives near the scene of a double murder on March 10. "This used to be the best city in the world... I fear for my children." At a nearby elementary school, students' movements were immediately restricted as word of the killings spread.

The root of the problem seems to be drugs, or rather a shortage of them.

The Mexican cocaine supply line extends through the United States, especially Los Angeles, up to Vancouver, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Pat Fogarty. But now the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderon has mobilized 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to curb cartel activity. That has driven up the price of cocaine in Vancouver from $23,300 per kilogram to almost $39,000, Fogarty says, and gangs are killing each other.

"People are nervous ... and so are the police," says Fogarty, head of the regional gang task force. "The public's outraged. The government's outraged."

Vancouver social activist Jamie Lee Hamilton, who lives in Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside, says she no longer has much faith in the justice system.

"I'm really apprehensive about going out in the evening," Hamilton says. "We've turned into an American city."

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan recently called Vancouver the country's gang capital, and said the violence is the worst in Canada. Canada's largest city, Toronto, has seen only 11 murders this year in a population of 5.1 million, almost double that of the Vancouver region.

On a visit to Vancouver earlier this month where he met with family members of victims, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed a new law that would label gang killings as first-degree murder with a sentence of at least 25 years and no parole. The law would also create a new offense with a minimum four-year jail term for drive-by shootings.

Harper has said people planning to attend the Winter Games should not worry about violence, with 15,000 police officers, private security and military personnel expected to provide security.

But shopkeeper Nandal Oad disagrees. He says nobody should feel safe coming to the Games.

Oad's suburban convenience store is just across the street from where shots were fired over morning rush-hour traffic March 10, leaving two brothers aged 19 and 22 dead. The violence has spread far beyond the city's notoriously drug-infested Downtown Eastside.

Oad says he has removed a wire cash transfer business from his store because of the violence. Police warned him weeks earlier of people carrying guns in the neighborhood, and he believes unemployment and addiction are fueling the violence. The unemployment rate in British Columbia jumped to 7.25 percent in February, up from 4.4 percent last February.

"It's very, very scary," Oad says. "We can't carry money here."

In one particularly brazen shooting last month, a mother was shot dead in her husband's luxury vehicle in broad daylight as her 4-year-old sat in the back seat. Hundreds turned out to protest gang violence last month after the string of shootings.

Local authorities say they have stepped up actions to curb the gangs and their violence. Police announced the arrests of 10 gang members recently, and four more were arrested on drugs and weapons offenses earlier this month.

Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu acknowledged the city is in the middle of a "brutal'" gang war, and said the strategy is to detain gang members on as many charges as possible. However, some of those arrested are being released on bail by the courts.

Vancouver's mayor, Gregor Robertson, has offered his own blunt assessment: Police are fighting a losing battle.

Vancouver may in part be paying the price for some of the very features that help make it so attractive. Rob Gordon, director of the criminology school at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, noted that the city has a laid-back attitude, easy access to the U.S. border and a vast backcountry with a climate ripe for growing potent marijuana. Police say British Columbia marijuana, known as B.C. bud, is often traded for cocaine, and Vancouver is known for marijuana grow-ops, or growing operations.

"Vancouver has become a safe place in which to grow and produce a variety of drugs," Gordon said. "It's a combination of our geography, a somewhat more laid-back approach to drugs and drug use, and the proximity to the border, easy export routes primarily to the United States-- I can't think of any other city in Canada that shares those characteristics."

more on the taser story

Taser inquiry batters RCMP credibility

DARRYL DYCK/CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO

RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson defended variations in his earlier statements by telling the inquiry that he didn't articulate well. (March 25, 2009)

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LINDA DIEBEL BLOGS INQUIRY

MOUNTIES RELAX RULES FOR MULTIPLE TASER JOLTS

VIDEO: POLISH MAN TASERED

INTERACTIVE: TASER USE

VIDEO: COMMISSIONER CALLS FOR LIMITS

TASER USE THRESHOLD SLIPPING, INQUIRY HEARS

MAN FEARFUL MONTHS AFTER BEING TASERED

RISK OF DEATH FROM TASER LOW: EXPERT

CMAJ URGES INDEPENDENT TASER RESEARCH

POLICE CHIEF COUNCILS CAUTION ON TASERS FOR TTC

DAY: TASERS NECESSARY

VIDEO SHOWS FINAL MINUTES

THIRD DEATH IN AS MANY WEEKS

REPORTS, GRAPHICS
MULTIMEDIA: INCIDENTS AND HOW TASERS WORK

BORDER SERVICES REPORT

BORDER SERVICES CHRONOLOGY (.PDF)

'Deadly' stapler testimony heard at inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski

Mar 28, 2009 04:30 AM

LINDA DIEBEL 
NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER

VANCOUVER – An office stapler. Nothing special, right?

But since Robert Dziekanski picked one up at the Vancouver airport when confronted by four Mounties on a fateful morning in 2007, it has become a symbol of growing public outrage with the RCMP over the Polish immigrant's death.

 

Week after week, the Braidwood Commission of Inquiry looking into the death has heard the four Mounties massage earlier statements about Dziekanski's actions – including with the stapler – as well as their own.

Or, as senior officer Cpl. Benjamin (Monty) Robinson, the final Mountie to testify this week, explained: "I was mistaken, but I was telling the truth."

It's not true, insisted Robinson, that he took Dziekanski's pulse with his work glove on. Or that he put the weight of his knee on the man's neck, rather than on his shoulders. He discounts scenes from an amateur video shot by bystander Paul Pritchard that seem to show otherwise, with the comment: "I don't know how you're interpreting it, but I'm telling you what I did."

It's clear the public grasps inconsistencies in RCMP testimony about what happened early on Oct. 14, 2007, when Dziekanski, 40, was pronounced dead at the scene. He'd been zapped five times by an RCMP Taser, including after he lay writhing on the ground, screaming in pain. "You're assuming he was screaming in pain," Robinson corrected.

Faith in the Mounties appears to be nose-diving. A recent Harris-Decima poll for The Canadian Press shows 60 per cent of respondents feel the officers used excessive force on Dziekanski. Polish Canadians recently started an online petition against the officers through Facebook, and readers routinely fire off critical emails to the Star.

Wrote Lynne Earle from Slave Lake, Alta.: "A sad day for the Force and Joe Public's faith in the system."

This week, RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen, a senior media relations officer, told inquiry reporters: "This is a lose-lose situation for everybody ... We are certainly sensitive to the fact the public trust is at a level we would rather not see it at."

Opposition parliamentarians describe a "crisis of confidence" and fear damage to the national force could be permanent. Says NDP public safety critic Jack Harris (St. John's East): "We're very concerned because we're seeing a loss of respect for the RCMP in the minds of Canadians."

Critics urge RCMP Commissioner William Elliott to enforce stricter guidelines for Taser use and, failing that, for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to introduce an amendment to the Criminal Code to severely restrict use of Tasers by police.

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh (Vancouver South), a former B.C. attorney general, urges a moratorium on the use of Tasers. Of the RCMP's Elliott, Dosanjh says: "He has utterly failed; he has shown no guidance, no leadership."

Meanwhile, the world is watching.

"It's the cover-up that's the worst," says Marcin Wrona, covering the hearings for TVN Poland. Last week, two of his broadcasts pulled in close to 4 million viewers. "Incidents happen everywhere, but it's how you handle it."

Before the inquiry, Robinson appeared calm and, at times, aggrieved by questions. In a March 2 letter from his lawyer, he changed key facts about the event, saying he hadn't "articulated well" before. Lawyer Don Rosenbloom, acting for the Polish republic, suggested the four officers cooked up their stories and collaborated to mislead an internal RCMP investigation.

Shortly after Dziekanski's death, RCMP officials described a man who "continued to throw things around and yell and scream" after police arrived. On the basis of the RCMP investigation, plus the amateur video, the Criminal Justice Board of B.C. announced last December that the four officers applied reasonable and necessary force, and that no charges would be recommended.

Thiessen says if additional evidence is brought forward by Commissioner Thomas Braidwood in his report, it "could potentially be forwarded to (RCMP) counsel for their decision." He won't comment when asked whether the altered versions present such evidence.

Certainly, a different image has emerged of Dziekanski, who spoke no English and arrived to live with his mother, Zofia Cisowski, in Kamloops, B.C.; his luggage was filled mostly with geography books.

It now appears he didn't stack his luggage against the door of the secure arrivals area, as officers originally said, nor did he appear in an "agitated state ... angry ... pissed off ... just wired up."

He didn't ignore RCMP commands, nor "wildly swing the stapler" while advancing on the Mounties. He didn't have to be "wrestled" to the ground, as they'd originally stated. Rather, said Robinson: "The Taser took him to the ground."

Still, Robinson insisted Dziekanski was a threat, as he held his stapler to face four Mounties armed with guns, metal batons, pepper spray and the Taser. The amateur video shows what appears to be a confused man who throws up his hands in what Rosenbloom describes as "resignation."

Dziekanski's last words before he was Tasered the first time were (as translated): "So you are not going to let me out of here? Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Are you crazy?"

Then the inquiry heard the sound of the multiple Taser zappings, amplified for viewing by Braidwood, witnesses and spectators, including Dziekanski's mother.

Even on the ground, handcuffed, Dziekanski remained a threat, Robinson claimed. Const. Bill Bentley called in a "Code 3" emergency after seeing a blue discoloration, but Robinson said this week only Dziekanski's ears were blue.

Robinson, whose first-aid training and Taser certification were expired at the time, stuck to his view Dziekanski might be alive if he hadn't picked up the stapler. If he hadn't done so, Const. Kwesi Millington might not have jolted him five times with his Taser, beginning 24 seconds after the Mounties encountered him in arrivals.

"On a personal level, it's so painful to watch (that video)," says Liberal MP and public safety critic Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering), who says oversight is badly needed for the RCMP. "What a cruel and terrible way to die ... It is so tragic."

bah!!!! stupid, stupid, stupid!!!

Calgary teachers' AIDS fundraiser halted after bishop's disapproval

Last Updated: Friday, March 27, 2009 | 9:41 PM MT Comments233Recommend82

CBC News

An annual fundraiser held by local Catholic teachers in support of an international AIDS charity is on hold after Calgary's Catholic bishop objected to its promotion of birth control.

For the last five years, the Calgary Catholic Teachers' Association has held a fundraiser during Lent for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which supports women and children living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, and also runs campaigns to prevent the deadly disease.

'I think the bishop is making a mistake in allowing doctrinal dogma to overtake common sense.'—Stephen Lewis

Last year, teachers raised $45,000 in personal and matching donations, said David Cracknell, head of the association.

But a parishioner went to Bishop Fred Henry with concerns about the fundraising for the group, which promotes the use of condoms as part of AIDS prevention campaign.

"To my surprise there were issues about Stephen Lewis and some of his functions. That was something that the local was not aware of," said Cracknell.

He met with the bishop, who then sent a letter to the teachers' association encouraging them to raise money for other groups in Africa that share Catholic values.

Abstinence also promoted by foundation

Lewis, a Canadian and a former special envoy for the United Nations, said condom use is only one part of his foundation's strategy to combat AIDS.

He said his group also promotes abstinence and fidelity — two things that are in line with the beliefs of the Catholic church.

"I think the bishop is making a mistake in allowing doctrinal dogma to overtake common sense," Lewis said Friday.

"I don't want to get into a stormy brew with the bishop. I just think that's it not really terribly fair. It is in a sense a violation of human rights for the bishop to say to Catholic teachers, you cannot support an organization you want to support."

Cracknell said the issue has divided the teachers' union: "It's very difficult for teachers to even consider defying the bishop because he provides the moral guidance for us, along with, of course ultimately, the Pope. However, teachers are very committed to the Stephen Lewis Foundation and very committed to helping around the world as a social-justice type of project."

Cracknell said the future of the fundraiser will be put to a vote by the teachers.

In 2006, Calgary's Catholic schools stopped raising funds through bingo and casinos after Henry raised concerns over the morality of spending gambling revenues on school activities.

we are becoming slaves to pharmaceuticals

Canadians using more prescription drugs

Updated Thu. Mar. 26 2009 6:44 PM ET

The Canadian Press

TORONTO -- Canadians are taking more prescription drugs than ever before, and increasingly those medicines are generic versions rather than brand-names, says a company that tracks worldwide pharmaceutical sales.

In a report released Thursday, IMS Health said the number of prescriptions filled by Canadians rose by more than seven per cent in 2008 over the previous year.

Prescription spending last year hit an estimated $21.4 billion, up from $20.2 billion in 2007, said IMS. In all, pharmacists countrywide dispensed 453 million prescriptions, for an average of roughly 14 per Canadian.

Brian Carter, director of external affairs for IMS Health Canada, said the 2008 rise in total prescriptions reflects a trend that's been going on for several years.

"Basically it's an increased utilization, but that's driven by things like the aging population, an increasing number of products in the marketplace and increasing awareness of consumers of the diseases they have and the drugs that are there to treat them," Carter said from Edmonton.

"That's sort of what's driving the growth in the number of prescriptions."

Steve Morgan, a health economist and researcher at the University of British Columbia, said prescription drug utilization has been steadily inching up year over year since the mid-1990s, both in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

"Many people would point to the aging of the population as a potential explanation of this," Morgan said from Vancouver. "Certainly the baby boomer generation is finding itself getting older and they're entering the years in which it can be expected that they will be filling more prescriptions over time."

"But ... we don't see that aging of the population is a big cause of drug spending or drug utilization increases."

Morgan said the greying of Canada's population accounts for an increase in pharmaceutical use of only about one per cent a year, "not by this seven or eight per cent you see in the (IMS) data."

He pointed to a proliferation of medicines developed in the last two decades and increased marketing of those products to both doctors and patients.

Consumers see commercials for specific drugs on U.S. TV channels and a variety of "reminder ads" that promote medicines using loopholes in Canada's stricter prescription drug advertising regulations, he said.

"But what's also happening is we're changing the standard of defining risk for future conditions. We've entered into a chronic disease management era."

"The focus is on trying to manage risk factors," said Morgan, so doctors are increasingly prescribing drugs to lower cholesterol levels or blood pressure, for instance, to diminish the chance of a future heart attack or stroke.

The IMS report also showed a sea-change in pharmaceutical market share, with less-expensive generic drugs overtaking brand-name medicines.

Last year, generics accounted for 51.6 per cent of all prescriptions dispensed in Canada, up from 48 per cent in 2007. Meanwhile, brand-name products claimed 48.4 per cent of the market, down from 52 per cent a year earlier.

Overall, dispensed volume of prescriptions for generic medication grew by 15 per cent in 2008, while brand-name volume dropped by 0.3 per cent, IMS said.

"The increasing use of generics is due to primarily the increasing number of brand-name drugs that are coming off patent," explained Carter. "So there are just more generic drugs that are available."

"And then there's a real focus on spending on prescription drugs by both the public and the private sectors and the desire to keep their costs under control."

Morgan said many of the blockbuster drugs developed in the 1970s and '80s, such as the class of antidepressants that includes Prozac and Paxil, are off patent and now sold in generic forms.

In fact, he said, brand-name drugs that currently command about US$74 billion of global market share will lose their patent protection in 2010-2012, including the world's Number 1 drug for sales -- Lipitor. The cholesterol-lowering medication by Pfizer currently brings in annual sales of about US$12 billion.

"And patients who used to be on the brand will be switched to generic, quite appropriately, because they're saving (money) and usually they're interchangeable," Morgan said.

The IMS report also showed that cardiovascular medications continued to lead as Canada's most prescribed drug class in 2008, followed by psychotherapeutics and gastrointestinal drugs.

Sales of prescription drugs to Canadian hospitals and pharmacies in 2008 grew 6.6 per cent in 2008, compared with a growth of 6.2 per cent a year earlier.

interesting......and scary

Jewish group proud of role in barring Galloway

Updated Thu. Mar. 26 2009 8:00 AM ET

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- The Jewish Defence League of Canada is taking credit for lighting the spark that ultimately burned a British politician's plans to enter the country.

The organization advised the federal government early last week about the impending speaking tour of George Galloway, the controversial British MP who has been a bitter critic of Israel.

A letter - sent March 16 to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, his cabinet colleague Peter Kent and opposition MPs - asked the government to keep that "hater" out of Canada.

"We asked that he not be allowed in," said Meir Weinstein, national director of the Jewish Defence League of Canada.

"Whether or not that had an effect on anyone - well, he's not in."

Weinstein said the letter "lit a fire" under other Jewish community leaders to protest the visit, to contact Canadian politicians, and write to newspapers about Galloway.

Four days later, Kenney's office confirmed the British MP would not be allowed into the country.

The government's opponents have accused it of political interference and launched two cases in Federal Court over a ban they say has no legal justification.

Kenney's office swatted away suggestions it was directly involved.

A spokesman said he first heard about Galloway's visit from the Defence League letter, and contacted departmental communications staff at Citizenship and Immigration to prepare media lines.

Kenney stressed that his political staff never contacted the Canada Border Services Agency - which made the call that the veteran politician was inadmissible under national-security grounds.

"Neither I nor my office have been in direct touch with CBSA officials about it," Kenney said in an interview.

"But the public servants in both ministries do correspond on a daily basis - on hundreds of files like this."

Officials in various departments did liaise with each other over the course of the week.

Kenney was informed March 17 of the CBSA decision. He decided he wouldn't use his extraordinary powers to overturn the ban. Finally, Canadian diplomats in London sent the five-time MP a letter late March 20 declaring him inadmissible.

British media were already on to the story. The previous day, Galloway's office had received a verbal warning of the Canadian government's decision.

Kenney spokesman Alykhan Velshi - who had begun preparing media lines on Galloway with departmental staff several days earlier - was suddenly fielding phone calls from the British press.

He sent them scurrying to their dictionaries with a memorable slag on Galloway as an "infandous street-corner Cromwell."

Galloway's supporters say the ban has no legal justification and is a politically motivated attack on free speech.

They say the Conservative government concocted an allegation that Galloway supports terrorism simply because they disagree with his pro-Palestinian views.

Lawyers for the Scottish-born MP are filing two separate motions in Federal Court: a request for a judicial review of the government's decision; and a demand for an immediate injunction overturning it.

They say the full judicial review could take months, while the injunction would allow Galloway to enter Canada next week for a four-day speaking tour in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

One of his lawyers told a Parliament Hill news conference that the government has distorted the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to suit its political purposes.

"The act is being interpreted to restrict certain opinions and voices," said Jamie Liew. "This is a dangerous precedent in terms of how we grant access.

"The decision by the government is rare and unprecedented. It's stretching the interpretation to include humanitarian aid - or activities including humanitarian aid - being described as terrorist activity.

"The legal team is challenging that notion."

The government says Galloway supported the terrorist group Hamas when he led a convoy to help Palestinians following the recent Israeli bombing of Gaza.

Galloway's supporters say the convoy included clothing, diapers, medical supplies, and $45,000 in relief money that he handed to the elected Hamas government.

Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization in Canada.

The Canadian government says the move to bar Galloway was based on the law - not politics.

Velshi said the CBSA informed Kenney's office that - according to Section 34.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act - Galloway's material support for Hamas rendered him inadmissible.

That legislation bars entry to anyone "engaging in terrorism," or "being a member of a (terrorist) organization"

Galloway's supporters call that absurd.

One of the organizers of his speaking tour said Galloway has never expressed support for terrorism and merely wanted to help Gaza's suffering civilians.

"He was very clear that this is not about supporting Hamas," said James Clark, who has been planning Galloway's visit.

"This is about providing humanitarian relief to the people of Gaza. Canada . . . remains the only country in the world that is interpreting this gesture as a terrorist act.

"There are grounds for us to challenge this legally and politically."

Kenney said he occasionally uses his power to overrule CBSA security assessments but will not do so in this case.

Galloway is currently on a speaking tour in the U.S. and has suggested he'll still try entering Canada. His supporters plan to meet him at the border.

Amazingly, the final decision in a case that has involved several government offices, two national Parliaments, and drawn media attention on both sides of the Atlantic, will belong to one person.

A uniformed border guard.

"(People trying to enter) have an interview with a CBSA officer," Kenney said.

"Someone who has been flagged with a preliminary assessment of inadmissibility is obviously going to get bigger scrutiny.

"But that border officer . . . makes what's called a fresh decision. That border officer looks at all the information and makes a decision on admissibility."