Will the Canadians arrest G. W. Bush?

George W. is supposed to give a speech on St. Patrick's day (March 17) in Calgary, Alberta.

It appears that his dream of making "ridiculous" money out the former president lecture money trail is about to come true.

Or not.

There are certain lawyers and human rights folks in Canada working to persuade the Canadian government to bar him from entering the country, and if he should weasel his way in, have George arrested.

According to Ben Armbruster at Think Progress, "Vancouver Lawyer Gail Davidson said the government has an obligation under the law to ban Bush from entering Canada because of his role in supporting torture..."

It seems that Canada has a law restricting entry for those perps who have "committed war crimes or crimes against humanity, including torture." Davidson says, "The test isn't whether the person's been convicted but whether there's reasonable grounds to think that they have been involved."

Ooops. Seems that is the case with George W. He has, indeed, been "credibly accused" of being involved in torture.

Armbruster notes that last year, "Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, urged the U.S. to pursue Bush and Donald Rumsfeld on charges that they authorized torture and other harsh interrogation techniques. Indeed, Bush himself said last year that he was aware of his advisers' discussion on torture and recently admitted that he personally authorized waterboarding Khalid Sheik Muhammad."


It shall be interesting to see how this plays out. Davidson's law firm does not intend to back down or quit: "...we want him to go back to the States, or we want him arrested, said an organizer for Canadian activists.

Sounds good to me.


Read Armbruster's entire article here.