Galloway lashes "disgraceful" Canadian foreign policy

More than 1000 people  crammed into Concordia University in Montreal to hear George Galloway accuse the 'disgraceful' Canadian government of hypocrisy  over their foreign policy.

"They say they are fighting for democracy in Afghanistan while they were the first country in the whole world to impose a starvation siege on the Palestinians because they didn't like the result of the election," he said, to rapturous applause. "The world used to think that Canada had a baby face, that its troops went into conflict zones as peacekeepers. This adventure from this disgrace of a government has scarred that face."

Galloway was the first politician allowed to speak at the university since 2002 when students rioted to prevent the right-wing Israeli minister Benyamin Netanyahu speak.

Dozens of riot police – some with gas masks – were on hand to prevent anything similar. But, in fact, a planned protest by Zionist groups did not happen.

Tickets for the lecture had sold out in hours and another large room had to be opened up for the overspill who had to watch the Bethnal Green and Bow MP on a large video screen.  The university authorities, clearly under pressure from pre-Israeli groups, played havoc with the arrangements right up until the final moment, cancelling several of the lecture theatres before finally allowing the event to go ahead.

In a wide-ranging speech, lasting over an hour, Galloway demanded that Canada should withdraw  its troops from Afghanistan and also allow the country to be a safe haven for war-resisting US troops, as they did in the Vietnam era. He also talked about Iraq, Palestine and the Arab dictatorships in the Middle East and then spent an hour answering questions from the audience.

Following the meeting, on Friday November 17, Galloway dined with the organisers of the event, the Syrian Students Association and the al-Nahda Social Cultural Centre, and signed dozens of autographs. Next day, Saturday, he flew back to Toronto to address another sell-out audience.

[click here to see some pictures of the Canadian tour]