Vancouver Information and Newspaper

OTTAWA – The Canadian high commissioner to London flatly objected to barring British MP George Galloway from Canada, saying it would simply provide “a greater platform” for a vocal politician who’s “not taken seriously” in his homeland.

At the height of the controversy, Jim Wright said in an email to a Privy Council Office official that the British could be “taken aback by such a Canadian decision” – one that may “look odd” since the United States planned to allow Galloway to speak at several prominent universities.

Newly filed court documents also reveal officials in Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office were concerned that Galloway, despite being declared unwelcome, might inadvertently be waved in to Canada by an unsuspecting border officer.

Galloway, a rabble-rousing politician and outspoken supporter of the Palestinian people, was told last March he would not be allowed to enter Canada for a speaking tour because he had provided financial support to Hamas, a listed terrorist organization.

The Canada Border Services Agency cited his involvement in an aid convoy that delivered clothing, medical items, relief money and vehicles to the elected Hamas government, as well as Galloway’s donation of three cars and $44,000 to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.

Galloway and his supporters consider Canada’s move a politically motivated salvo and defend his participation in the aid mission as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians following an Israeli bombing of Gaza.

The documents lay bare stark differences of opinion within government on the wisdom of the move and indicate the minister’s office, while not directly involved in the decision to reject Galloway, made its opposition to his visit abundantly clear to department officials.

Candid internal emails and other sensitive documents usually shielded from public view were recently filed by the government in the Federal Court of Canada in response to a legal challenge of the border agency’s move to turn him away.

The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, which had invited Galloway to speak in Toronto and nearby Mississauga, has joined with other supporters to contest the federal decision in a case likely to be heard in April.

According to the documents, the drama unfolded last March 16 when Alykhan Velshi, Kenney’s director of communications, sought the advice of Edison Stewart, a senior communications official with the Immigration Department, about a media call asking why Canada would let Galloway enter.

Stewart passed Velshi’s inquiry to Immigration officials including Stephane Larue, director general of the case management branch, who suggested asking the border services agency to do “a very quick inadmissibility assessment.”

Larue indicated that if Galloway were found inadmissible to Canada, a temporary resident permit would be his only means of entry.

Stewart advised Velshi of Larue’s plan.

Velshi said in a reply that if the British MP’s admission were dependent on a temporary permit, he could predict one would not be forthcoming given “the kind of things George Galloway advocates.”

Two days later another Kenney aide, senior special adviser Kennedy Hong, advised Larue and two officials at Public Safety, the department that oversees the border agency, that Galloway might be in the United States and “may well be approaching our visa offices” via the U.S.

“There’s something on the border security system already so he doesn’t get let in accidentally I presume?” Hong asked.

He later inquired of Larue: “How can CBSA ensure that he won’t just be waved into Canada? Can we provide them with a profile? . . . photo?”

Velshi also expressed concern to Larue that Galloway not be admitted “under any circumstances” – either from the United States or England by way of Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

“Can you confirm that if he tries to cross the Canada-U.S. border, or tries to fly in via Pearson (either from the U.S. or the U.K.) he will be turned back. The minister has said he will not issue a (permit) and doesn’t want one issued.”

Kenney has stressed that neither he nor his political staff were ever “in direct touch” with border services officials about Galloway.

The minister said following the border agency’s decision that people “supporting and promoting and helping terrorist organizations” are not needed in Canada.

From his vantage point in London, Wright thought otherwise.

“There is no question that George Galloway is outspoken and while extremely clever and media savvy, is not taken seriously in the U.K.,” he wrote to Claude Carriere, a foreign policy adviser in the PCO.

“Denying him entry to Canada will simply give him a greater platform.”

Wright also feared that inevitable coverage of the Galloway tempest would detract from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “key economic messages” during a visit to London during the same period.

Carriere responded that the Prime Minister’s Office was “comfortable” with denying the MP entry.

Galloway ended up addressing Canadian supporters in a broadcast from New York, and organizers said publicity over the immigration dispute boosted ticket sales.

He called the attention windfall “poetic justice.”

Both Velshi and the Foreign Affairs Department declined comment, saying it would be inappropriate to discuss a matter before the courts.