Declare President Bush persona non grata

Written By: sthompson
Date: 2004-11-22 14:31:16
<a href="/article/143116725-declare-president-bush-persona-non-grata">Article Link</a>

This was well within the range predicted before the war, for example by a British affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War who, in November 2002, assessed the probable death toll at a minimum of 48,000 deaths, mostly civilians, and predicted that post-war
conditions would cost an additional 200,000 lives.[3]

The President\'s responsibility for these offences derives not only from his \'command responsibility\' as Commander in Chief of US forces, for crimes that he knew were being committed, or ignored through willful blindness, but did nothing to prevent; it also comes from his direct involvement in the formulation of policy. This includes his personalinvolvement not only in the devising and waging of an aggressive, illegal war, but also of the unlawful refusal to grant prisoner of war
status to prisoners of war, contrary to specific provisions of the Geneva Conventions, an act repudiated in the US Courts.[4] It also includes the approval of techniques of interrogation by his direct subordinate, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, that legally and morally constitute torture and that led directly to the disgraceful violence
against Iraqi prisoners, for example at the prison at Abu Ghraib.

As you know, not only are these acts criminal under international law, but many of them are also criminal under Canadian law, under laws enacted in pursuance of our international obligations, most importantly the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, put in place just four years ago under a Liberal government. They also violate the provisions on torture in the Canadian Criminal Code.

By these laws, Canadians and non-Canadians alike are liable to prosecution in Canada, no matter where in the world they have committed their crimes. Furthermore, as the Attorney General can advise, the fact that these crimes have been committed by Mr. Bush while President of the
United States is absolutely irrelevant to his personal liability to prosecution in Canada, according to principles established at Nuremberg
and universally recognized since then, including by the British House of Lords in the Pinochet case in 1999. And if President Bush were to visit
Canada after leaving office, we would be seeking the Attorney General\'s permission under section 9 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes
Act and section 7 of the Criminal Code to commence proceedings against him.

However, as you also know, should President Bush come to Canada now, while still President, he would be clothed with both diplomatic and head
of state immunity from our laws and we would be powerless to bring him to justice.

Your invitation in these circumstances, therefore, shows contempt for both Canadian and international law and is a grievous insult to the literally hundreds of thousands of victims of President Bush\'s international crimes. It is also our belief that the invitation endangers Canadians\' security at home and abroad, because it is a departure from our steadfast refusal to this point to participate in this criminal war of the Bush administration. In fact, it is our belief that this invitation can only act as an encouragement to President Bush
in his continuing criminal activity, providing him with an important platform in this, his first post re-election foreign visit, to defend illegal US actions in Iraq and to improve his international standing despite them, all this against the wishes of the majority of Canadians.

Indeed, we feel bound to point out that your invitation to President Bush may thus constitute an abetting of the crimes he and his administration and military continue to commit. As such you and your colleagues could be personally liable to prosecution under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act by virtue of section 21 of the Canadian Criminal Code, for crimes so serious that they are punishable in Canada by up to life imprisonment. Abetting a crime, as the Attorney General will advise, is regarded as equally criminal to actually committing it and is complete when one intentionally, knowingly, or with willful blindness encourages the commission of a crime by another.

Nor would President Bush\'s immunity be capable of shielding you and your colleagues from prosecution, because, as the Attorney General will
advise, the immunity applies only to foreign officials visiting Canada and not to members of the Canadian government itself. Nor does the inability to prosecute a criminal affect the criminal liability of an abettor.

It is for all these reasons we urgently request a meeting with you, the Foreign Minister, the Attorney General or your representatives in
Ottawa, so that we might have the opportunity to elaborate on these matters and to persuade you to declare President Bush persona non grata in Canada, or at least to rescind this invitation, and thus to avoid implicating yourselves and Canada in the most serious of international
crimes.

Sincerely,

Michael Mandel and Gail Davidson
on behalf of Lawyers against the War (LAW) a Canada-based committee of jurists and others with members in thirteen countries.

Contacts:
Michael Mandel, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University,
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3. Tel: 416 736-5039, Fax:
416-736-5736,
Email: [email protected]

Gail Davidson, Tel: 604 738 0338; Fax: 604 736 1175, Email:
[email protected]

[1] Reuters, \"U.N. Rights Boss Urges Fallujah \'Abuses\' Probe\"
http://yahoo.reuters.com/newsArticle.jh ... ID=6828157
[2] Les Roberts, Riyadh Lafta, Richard Garfield, Jamal Khudhairi,
Gilbert Burnham, Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq,
published online 29 October
2004.http://image.thelanct.com/extras04art10342web.pdf
[3] Collateral Damage: the Health and Environmental Costs of War on
Iraq, 12 November 2002. http://www.ippnw.org/CollateralDamage.pdf
[4] For example Hamdan v. Rumsfeld et al, (United States District Court
for the District of Columbia, November 7, 2004).

cc: The Honourable Bill Graham P.C. Q.C. M.P.
Minister of National Defence
General George Pearkes Building
101 Colonel By Drive - 13th Floor
Ottawa Ontario K1A 0K2
Tel: 613 992 5234
Fax: 613 996 8607
Email:[email protected]

The Honourable Irwin Cotler
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
312 West Block
House of Commons
Ottawa Ontario K1A 0A6
Tel: 613 992 4621
Fax: 613 990 7255
Email: [email protected]

That sure puts Paul Martin in a tough position, but I hope he takes the high road.

Three cheers for Lawyers against the War.

Lawyers making up BS 'cases' - I love it! it reveals the foolishness of some of these 'learned professionals'. They're lucky to be paid for by Canadian taxpayers in their comfortable University setting, they would probably starve if they had to do real legal work and not be so fixated and narrow-minded. Those who can do, those who can't 'teach'...

Does anyone know how I can donate to this most worthy cause?

This is ridiculous. It is a tradition for presidents to make their first state visit to Canada after an election. Bush disregarded this tradition after being elected in 2000, and we weren't too happy. It's obvious to see how you people will complain no matter what happens. If Bush had decided not to visit you would have criticised him for snubbing us yet again. Of course since he has decided to visit, you are now going to play the other side and say that we don't want him to come. Get your act together. I don't see how making Bush persona non grata will accomplish anything.

---
Zachary Whalen

Let's invite Timothy McVeigh while we're at it. Don't tell us you see a difference z_whalen?

Zachary,

Do not ever speak for all of us again. You do not speak for me as one of the complainers about Bush not being invited. I am in complete agreement with the Lawyers Against the War Action and I will support keeping Bush out of our country as hard as I can. You can send him a big photocopy of your lips and a love letter on your own behalf!

For those who complained about his non-visit after his first "election", and I wasn't one of them. Remember, he wasn't a war criminal then. Now he is!

---
Canada for Canadians

>It is a tradition...Bush disregarded [it]...and we weren't too happy...you people will complain no matter what happens Um. Well, see, back then Shrubadud was just an asshole. Now he's a supreme international criminal, to adapt used at Nuremberg. And we've signed onto international laws and protocols to deal with war criminals. We can either show a smidgen of that backbone and relevance so many ANONs here accuse of us of lacking, or we can can let him come and go as he pleases.

uh, ya, like Wraun said =)

BS cases - get a life and learn some history. Case history has shown that what the US government did under Bush is considered a crime. Nuremburg and the UN Charter clearly spell out the bounds of civilized behaviour. Those barriers were breached and Kofi Annan made himself very clear - "the attack on Iraq is a crime".

The Nazis and Japanese after WW2 were saying the exact same thing, and that did not save them.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

The public is to be seen and not heard. Didn't you know that? That's why they invented the black box voting machines, to give the appearance of voting without all the bother of an unexpected result.

Bush II is a twice convicted war criminal and as such we are to have no dealings with him.

Sorry Zach. This will send a very clear message to Mr. Bush, just as he sent to us.

On 2001-09-11, I was shocked, as we all were. So when I heard that millions of people were stranded in airports, far from home, I wondered what I could do to help. Like many Canadians, I went to the airport and took some people in. I made two trips, because my car only held 5 at a time.

I had people sleeping on any flat space they could find. I even had to go out and buy new pots, and pans, and utensils, because two of my guests were kosher Jews and luckily I knew their dietary requirements. I even still get cards around the holidays from ALL of them.

So what does Bush say in his first post 9/11 speech to the nation? "America has no better ally than the United Kingdom". "America has no better friend than Mexico". No mention whatsoever of Canada.

So, his only visit to Canada was for the G8 Summit in Kananaskis. He cancels his only scheduled official state visit here, to host John Howard at his ranch in Texas, presumably because he doesn't like Cretien. Well, tough! I don't like him ethier, but that is politics. Suck it up!

Now, he wants to visit? I say, no. I don't want him here. If he can't acknowledge our special relationship, and continues to slap *me* personally in the virtual face, he can take a long hard 'pull' off "Big Vladimir and the twins".

---
"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

"War has always diminished our freedom. When our freedom has expanded, it has not come as a result of war or of anything the government has done but as a result of what citizens have done." -- "Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem." -- (Howard Zinn)