CANADIANS PROTEST 'MURDERER' CHENEY'S VISIT

Sadly, I imagine Cheney just considers such “outbursts” of public conscience to be great publicity. It is bad enough he believes that the protesters are careless in making unfounded accusations!

Once more, as a Canadian I am ashamed that this criminal is given safe haven in my country; that my countrymen have set up a tour for him; that my government (no surprise here) is using the public purse to protect him. They should be taking him off to the authorities (Who would, no doubt, ask for personally autographed copies of his memoirs of torture and crime.)

Protesters are pushed by a line of police officers as people try to enter the Dick Cheney book tour appearance in Vancouver Monday.

Activists protested Cheney's arrival late Monday in the West Coast city of Vancouver, accusing him of authorizing torture during the George W. Bush administration's war on terror and calling on Canada to arrest him.

Cheney was invited to Vancouver by the Bon Mot Book Club, a private company with bank, university and media sponsors, to talk about his new book, "In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with police Monday night outside the private club in downtown Vancouver where former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney was promoting his new book. 

Vancouver police and private security guards helped attendees pass protesters and enter the club. Several people were shoved, and in one case sitting protesters held onto a man's legs.

Shouting "Shame, Shame!" and "Arrest Dick Cheney!" raucous protesters shoved and grabbed at people who paid $500 apiece to hear the former US vice president speak in Canada. A line of police pushed back protesters who tried to surge against the club's front door.

Some police officers later donned riot gear, including body armour, masked helmets and Plexiglas shields, but by that time, guests had already entered the venue. 

ED: How bloody heavy-handed overkill American does that sound?!

Initial reports suggested one man was arrested, but police later said no arrests were made.

Cheney was speaking at the sold-out $500 per seat event as part of a promotion of his book In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.

The protest organizers with Stopwar.ca were demanding Canada arrest Cheney for war crimes because of his controversial support for the use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other methods to interrogate prisoners in the U.S.'s war against terrorism. 

ED: There is no need to detail more of this war criminal’s crimes, they are known around the globe. His involvement with the Zionist neocons to bring about the war on humanity terror is a fine place to start.

"We're very angry that he has chosen Vancouver as the first location outside of the United States to do a book tour event, and we feel it's important that citizens of Vancouver show that we won't tolerate a war criminal coming and speaking in our town," said Derrick O'Keefe, co-chair of the StopWar Coalition.

"We hope to set an example that Cheney doesn't see Canada as a safe haven."

But Leah Costello, (former Director of Events for the think tank Fraser Institute), who heads up the Bon Mot Book Club that organized the event, said it's disappointing anybody would want to prevent Cheney from speaking. Costello defended the invitation to Cheney, saying he had the right to speak about his eight years in the US administration. In the past she has brought in Sarah Palin, Michael Lewis and Pervez Musharraf to speak at Le Bon Mot, Canada's most exclusive book club.

"What is important is that he is able to speak and free to speak and people are free to hear him," said Costello.

 

"The most important thing in our club is that we're not endorsing or not endorsing the speakers we bring in. We bring them in for the point of debate and discussion," she said.

"It's important to maintain an open society that has open dialogue, and the freedom to speak," she said.

ED: This to me is the abuse of freedom of speech, along the line of the KKK or a paedophile hiding behind this important amendment. It is not the words, it is the past crimes. This woman purposefully misses the point entirely.

Cheney's new memoir details his continued support of the interrogation techniques, which he called “critically important” to national security.

"Should the president reinstate enhanced interrogation, including waterboarding? Well I certainly would advocate it," Cheney recently told Fox News.

But Vancouver-Kingsway New Democrat MP Don Davies said Cheney should not even be allowed into Canada because those methods are considered torture.

"Canada is not supposed to be a safe haven for people who have committed acts of torture. This is an embarrassment on the world stage, and it's an embarrassment domestically."

Davies said Cheney should be barred from Canada for authorizing actions banned under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

"I am surprised and disappointed that he was allowed into Canada," Gail Davidson of Lawyers Against the War, a group opposed to the US-led invasion of Iraq, is quoted from Monday, as the crowd screamed, "Arrest the murderer!" 

Davidson said she wrote to members of the Conservative government, outlining the federal law that prohibits Cheney from entering Canada.

"Canada has a duty globally to take measures to effectively prevent and punish torture."

Davidson attended the protest and said she hopes it raises awareness about federal laws prohibiting torture.

Jim Nugent, a resident of Columbus, Ohio who watched the protest from across the street from the Vancouver Club, was not a Cheney fan.

"Obviously he is not a very popular man, Mr. Cheney is not. I'm glad to see it here. I'm just sad that your prime minister allowed him into your country."

Nugent said he didn't feel any anti-Americanism at the rally and criticized the Bush administration for the "lies" that led the U.S. into Iraq and the squandering of the country's treasury.

"So many things occurred under that administration. We could go on for hours," he said.

 

Costello turned down AFP's request to attend the event or talk to Cheney because Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, a sponsor of the event, had an exclusive right to an interview. 

She described the Monday night event, a $500 a seat gathering, as a moderated question-and-answer session. 

ED: I can think of a few questions I would like to ask the criminal. First on the list would be, "Can I pull the battery from your artificial heart and see what happens to you? Just in the interest of science, of course." 

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Saturday that Canadian law provides for prosecution of an individual for torture and other crimes, even for offences committed outside of Canada.

"Overwhelming evidence of torture by the Bush administration, including at least two cases involving Canadian citizens, obligates Canada to investigate Cheney to comply with the Convention Against Torture," the group said Saturday.

The Globe quoted Cheney as saying, in response to critics who accused him of approving torture, "It's irresponsible the way they throw these words around," 

"I was a student at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s ` those were real protests there," he said.

Ed: As IF this criminal every carried a “Make love, not war” sign!

He insisted that the controversial practice of waterboarding terror suspects does not amount to torture and was only used on three people.

Cheney served as vice-president under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. He was also secretary of defence under George Bush Sr. from 1989 to 1993.

WELL DONE ACTIVISTS.

EVERY BIT OF PUBLIC AWARENESS THAT YOU SPREAD HELPS!

A second appearance organized by the same book club was scheduled Tuesday in Calgary.