Banned British MP Vows Legal Action

Controversial British Member of Parliament George Galloway said he will take legal action against CTV and the CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Bernie Farber.
The move comes after Farber accused Galloway of using a Canadian speaking tour to raise money for terrorists, in an interview with CTV.
“On CTV he didn’t just defame me,” said Galloway. “He put my personal safety, and that of my family, at risk. And I’m simply not going to put up with it anymore.”
Galloway made the comments at a speech at Concordia last Wednesday. Because he was prevented from entering the country by the federal government, on national security grounds, he made the speech by videoconference from New York.
But a spokesperson for the Canadian Jewish Congress said that while he couldn’t comment on any specific lawsuits, they stand by the comments.
“There will be no apology,” said Jordan Kerbel, director of Public Affairs and Communications for the Congress. “It’s rather ironic that a man, who professes to be a free-speech advocate, could turn around, and propose possible litigation to limit our free speech.”
A spokesperson from CTV refused to comment on the situation.
Galloway spent much of his speech criticizing the government’s decision to ban him; a decision he said has only gotten him more attention.
“This ban isn’t working,” he said. “We have been speaking to and we, in the anti-war movement, have reached more Canadians on this tour than probably at any time since the war on Iraq was botched in 2003.”
Galloway was banned from entering Canada because he has given money to the Hamas lead government of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is listed as a banned terrorist group by the Canadian government.
“I took an aid convoy to Gaza and gave the aid to the democratically elected government,” he said. “We took ambulances to Gaza, and the call this terrorism? What kind of terrorism is this?”
“I am not a supporter of Hamas, I never have been,” said Galloway, who was a close friend of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. “But I am a supporter of democracy, and nobody has the right to choose the representatives of the Palestinian people but the Palestinians themselves.”
Galloway said the best solution for peace in the Middle East would be a single, secular, democratic state in Israel and Palestine.