Thursday, March 12, 2009

give George the boot -- into jail!


George Bush is coming to Calgary! Send shoes to give George the boot

Matthew Brett writes:

"George Bush’s first international speech after finishing his presidency will be to the Calgary Rotary Club on March 17th, the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and the Calgary’s activist community would like to give him the welcome he deserves.

There will events throughout the week leading to Bush’s visit but for those outside Calgary we wanted to give you a chance to give him his due welcome. To that end the local activist community in Calgary is asking people from around Canada to send us your old shoes so they can be a symbol to boot Bush Out of Canada! We are hoping people will send shoes in from across the country to show solidarity.

Also, people can include notes or letters with their shoes and we will post them with the wall of shame or attach them to the shoes at the rally for people to see.
"

Bill Kaufmann says "Dinner footwear may be optional" and continues that

"Paying to hear Dubya weighing in on world challenges he made considerably more dire is like Dick Cheney charging for safe hunting tips.
...
To its neighbours, Calgary's fast becoming Canada's receptacle of infamy.
They're just waiting for Dick Cheney to hit our red carpet.
Ottawa gets Obama, Calgary gets Bush -- naturally.
It must be a sturdy thing, our western hospitality -- patient and forgiving.
Allowing its exploitation is nothing new, with those white hats handed out so unscrupulously.
But 400 bucks is pretty princely rubber-necking, even for prime disaster porno.
Maybe a ringside seat to the ascent and normalization of lawlessness really is worth the price of admission.
"

A group of lawyers is set to challenge Dubya's impunity to lawlessness:

Ban Bush From Canada for War Crimes: Lawyers

A lawyers' group has asked the RCMP to bar former U.S. president George W. Bush from entering Canada, citing torture and war crimes committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In a letter to the RCMP war crimes section and copied to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and other federal ministers and opposition MPs, the Lawyers Against the War group claims that Bush is "inadmissible to Canada . . . because of overwhelming evidence that he has committed, outside Canada, torture and other offences" as detailed in Canada's War Crimes Act.

Bush is expected to visit Canada on March 17, to give a speech in Calgary as a guest of the city's chamber of commerce.

The letter, dated Wednesday, asks the Mounties to "begin an investigation of George W. Bush for aiding, abetting and counselling torture between Nov. 13, 2001, and November 2008 at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Bagram prison in Afghanistan, and other places."

It also asks the prime minister, attorney general and ministers of immigration and public safety to ban Bush for heading an administration that "engaged in torture and other war crimes against humanity."

The group offers to provide evidence of incidents of torture.

This isn't the first time the group has protested against Bush.

In 2005, a B.C. Supreme Court judge rejected their attempt to put the then-U.S. president on trial for war crimes.

3 comments:

Merche Pallarés said...

I hope a rainfall of shoes greet that criminal in Calgary. Hugs, M.

Anonymous said...

You have to arrange a memorable gala to George Bush ( in Finnish Yrjö Työntö ). There must be high quality artists who will praise Bush enough.
An excellent songbird would be mrs. Hyacinth Bucket ( in a British serie "Keeping up appearances" ), she is even "better" than mrs Edith Bunker. What a real gala when shoes are flying during heavenly music. The atmosphere must be good enough when a super war hero is praising himself for saving the world.

northshorewoman said...

yes, let's hope that a torrent of shoes follow him where ever he goes, but I hope that the protest is not just symbolic, but that the lawyer's group do charge him with war crimes. Why does the US have such impunity and is never accountable for all the deaths it is responsible for, most recently in Iraq and also Palestine via US military arms and support of Israel.

Ari, yes, George Bush is like an Archie Bunker except Archie Bunker was just a working class racist with no power save his own mouth. Bush should not even be let into to Canada. Why this interest in Canada, anyway? First Obama, now Bush. There must be some buttering up to do.