PM Harper’s arrival in China yesterday started off rather bizarrely by him choosing to upstage Flaherty (who was back here in Canada) and release the latest economic update. Guess that was as far as he could get from the House of Commons. Either that or he realized what a pompous little jerk Flaherty is and decided that as PM he was just had to upstage him, I’d be frightened if I actually started to understand Harper’s thought processes.

That little political grandstand was nothing compared to what came later on.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the number two man in China, publicly chastized Harper for the five year gap in official visits from a Canadian leader. Harper hasn’t made an effort to visit China on his watch, in fact he and his goons have taken a bit of a hardline towards China. Economic conditions and pressure from the Opposition has more to do with Harper showing up in China than any change of attitude on his part.

David Akin, a journalist travelling with Harper, tries to argue that the public rebuke Harper received is a slight to all Canadians. Technically, Akin is right in that Harper is representing Canada and its people when he’s making an official visit. Read the rest of this entry »

A federal judge today denied the group representing George Galloway an injunction to allow him into Canada. Galloway, a British MP who is the sole MP for the Respect party (which he founded), was denied entry to Canada by the Canadian Border Service. He was to be in the country on an anti-war speaking tour.

The judge ruled:

“The admission of a foreign national to this country is a privilege determined by statute, regulation or otherwise, and not a matter of right,” Martineau wrote in his ruling. “In this respect Parliament has expressly given the CBSA officers legal authority to exclusively determine whether a foreign national who seeks to enter this country is admissible”

The group, Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, argued that Galloway’s exclusion was as the result of political interference and was an issue of free speech. The judge didn’t completely rule out the political interference by declined to directly express an opinion. A judicial review of the decision will take place. Read the rest of this entry »