George Galloway, shown in 2005, was barred entry to Canada last March because the federal government deemed him a supporter of a terrorist organization.Toby Melville/Reuters
A couple of months ago, I wrote about Jason Kenney's habit of giving questionable public representations of what he and his staff do behind closed doors. So I'd be remiss if I didn't take note of yet another example.
When George Galloway was banned from entering Canada last year, Kenney was clearly supportive of the decision. But he indicated that it hadn't been made or influenced by him. From Campbell Clark's report at the time:
The Immigration Minister said he has no power to bar someone from Canada, only to overrule the Canada Border Services Agency if someone is deemed inadmissible. He said he was not "personally" consulted by the CBSA, although his aides were aware of the case.
"There was some discussion in my office, but I could not and cannot give direction to agents of the CBSA, who are not even in my ministry," Mr. Kenney said.
Now, the records in the ensuing court case suggest the Immigration Minister wasn't being entirely forthcoming. From Campbell's latest report:
From the first e-mail that Mr. Kenney's communications director, Alykhan Velshi, sent on March 16, 2009, at 2:09 p.m. to immigration bureaucrats - the subject line was "inadmissible" - only 102 minutes passed before an official in the National Security section of the CBSA had agreed that Mr. Galloway should be barred for being a member of a terrorist organization. ...
It was Mr. Kenney's communications' aide, Mr. Velshi, who set the wheels in motion a few days before, on March 16.
He sent an e-mail at 2:09 p.m. to the Immigration Department's director-general of communications, Edison Stewart, saying he had a media call asking "why we're letting in the following person even though he's publicly called for money to go to a banned terrorist entity in Canada [Hamas]and that makes him inadmissible."
Mr. Velshi sent along copies of articles quoting Mr. Galloway's articles, as Mr. Stewart forwarded the case to senior officials including Stéphane Larue, the director-general of the Immigration Department's case-management branch, who said he would ask CBSA to do a "very quick inadmissibility assessment." Mr. Velshi chimed in that if it came up to Mr. Kenney, "I can fairly predict that he will not ever give a [entry permit]to someone who advocated the kind of things George Galloway advocates."
Unless you have a very narrow definition of what "giving direction" means, it sounds like the Immigration Minister - through his aide, at least - was a lot more involved than he originally indicated.
Kenney has won a lot of admirers with his intelligence, remarkable work ethic and willingness to take on high-risk files. From what I've seen, there can be little disagreement that he possesses all those qualities. But I'd feel better about having him as one of the federal government's most senior ministers if it were a little easier to trust him.
Adam Radwanski