Stan, this is exactly where it gets tricky. From a stricktly legal perspective, Galloway had not broken any Canadian law. Yes, he'd been to Gaza, but that's not illegal. He's fundraised for Hamas, that's illegal IN Canada, but he had not done it in Canada. It's illegal to be a Hamas member, but I don't think that anyone is actually suggesting that Galloway is a member of a terrorist group, just that he supprots them. This is what makes it so hard to justify keeping him out of the country. From a legal perspective, at least.

It's now even more embarassing to watch this guy run around and give interviews on national television that he would not otherwise have been asked to do had he not been kept out of the country. Sadly, his audience has increased by multiples of thousands.

The great irony of all this is, those who cheer Galloway on are from the same political bent as those who violently protested and forced Netanyahu to cancel a speech at Concordia University a few years ago. 'Freedom of speech, but only if I like what you're saying' is a hollow philosophy. But now I'm digressing!

Stan, I'm not really so sure how proud Canada should be. I think the governments decision gave Galloway huge publicity mileage and a great deal more anti-conservative, 'resistance' street-cred.

This is a huge issue here in Canada, but I think the best solution would have been to have quietly allowed him in, let him speak with as little fanfare as possible and put a few Royal Canadian Mounted Police and some Canadian Security Intelligence Service spooks in the back of the room. Then, if he broke Canadian law by fund raising for terrorist groups, Canada could actually press charges. Instead, the government has made a questionable free-speech decision and it's had the exact opposite effect.

Just blogged about this myself. Things remain foggy, but it seems that it was the Israeli Air Force that hit the convoy, not the US.

I realize this is an old post, but Carrefour seems to be the center of another storm. If you'll permit the shameless plug, I just blogged about it...