Rsquo Dept: 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. But the court record has already revealed much about how the Galloway affair began: not in routine work by security officials, but because it was triggered by political aides, then pushed quickly by high ranking officials, and approved by the Prime Minister’s Office. Though last year’s decision to bar Mr. Galloway from Canada for allegedly supporting banned Mideast group Hamas fuelled headlines for weeks and a court case that will be heard on Monday, it was a decision that was pushed through the bureaucracy at record speed. Monday’s arguments in a legal case contesting the government move will raise a host of crucial questions for Canada’s immigration system. Mr. Galloway insists he was never a member of Hamas, and he’s being barred for his political and pro Palestinian views. As
reported in the news.
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@t political aides, immigration system
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