Is Canada becoming Colombia?

[Say_What]

<clips>

Is Canada becoming Colombia, where crimes are committed with impunity and the rule of law is meaningless? Toronto civil liberties lawyer Rocco Galati said on December 4 he would no longer take cases involving “suspected terrorists” after receiving a death threat and being refused police protection.

“We now live in Colombia,” he said, “because the rule of law is meaningless. It means that lawyers cannot represent anyone even in what you profess to be a democracy here in Canada.”

For making that parallel, and for suggesting that U.S. or Canadian intelligence agencies were behind the threat, Galati was accused by The Globe and Mail of “taking his own hyperbole a little too seriously.” The parallel, however, should not be dismissed so casually.

Galati has been an uncompromising advocate of civil liberties, taking difficult cases like that of Abdurahman Khadr, recently released from the U.S. Guantanamo prison camp after being arrested in Afghanistan as an “illegal combatant” over a year ago. Galati also defended individuals detained under special “terror” legislation, including “security certificates.”

http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=29098

[TexasMexican]

1. I dont know about this case in particular, but...

with Canada cutting back its armed forces, its legalizing drugs, and its supposidly pourous border I wouldnt be surprised to see American intervention in Canada if Bush is re-elected.

[Maple]

2. What again?

When will you Americans learn? :D

[Kitsune]

6. I doubt most Americans even know what the War of 1812 was about

Let alone that we got our asses kicked and our capitol burned in it.

Hooray for being a history major.

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. "American intervention in Canada " - are you suggesting MILITARY action ?

. . and regarding :

. . "cutting back its armed forces, its legalizing drugs, and its supposidly pourous border "

we haven't decided to "cut back" our armed forces, quite the contrary, and it should be remembered that us Canuks lost over a MILLION people fighting WW2 - we WILL be there when their is a "justified" war.

and "legalizing drugs" is a broad statement, we WERE contemplating making SMALL amounts of the evil weed Mary-Jane a MISDOMEANOR, rather than a felony, - not quite the same as "legalizing" drugs ?

and "pourous border" - well you don't see too many sneaking into the USA like the Mexican border - now THERE is a "porous" border.

And regarding "American Intervention" ?? well - Murikkka has been "intervening" in our business affairs for decades -

BUT - if you are suggesting and Iraq-like "liberation" ? - then Iraq will seem like a picnic compared to an invasion of Canada.

Oh yah I furgot - we got OIL, Hydro, Lumber, and water - oops !

Then again, the USA's got alot on it's plate right now ?

[daleo]

16. Didn't lose a million people

But Canada did have at least that many under arms. It is usually considered that there were 50,000 or so deaths. I suppose there would have been four or five times that many wounded.

[iverglas]

4. speaking as a former lefty lawyer in Canada

... who was wiretapped by security services for associating with foreign troublemakers (when you call your own office and the voice that answers says "RCMP Security", you know you're dealing with some keystone cops wiretappers) ...

I find Galati's tale just, how to put it, a little off. And I'm not the only one.

As far as I know, Galati is not a member of the Law Union of Ontario. That's like a progressive lawyer in the US not being a member of the National Lawyers Guild. Freelance self-appointed champions -- oops, "uncompromising advocates" -- of great causes always trigger my suspicion reflexes.

Galati has also apparently agreed to be retained by Ernst Zundel in his ongoing battle with Canadian citizenship authorities or whatever he's up to now. Ernst Zundel, the world's biggest Holocaust denier. (Well, maybe second to David Irving; Canada threw him out, too, even though it was on a bit of a technicality.) For somebody afraid of death threats and devoted to human rights, he sure does do some funny stuff.

Lots of other lawyers in Canada have represented lots of other unpopular clients without getting killed. Well, there was that one who was shot by his client's husband in a Toronto family court a few years back ... . But so far, the score is lawyers: 100, US security forces: 0.

Seriously, I see something less than a complete story here, and something that looks like a self-aggrandizing concocted reason for dropping some cases for some other reason. I used to wince when I heard of someone retaining one of a couple of lawyers I knew, whom the press fawned over as paragons of civil liberties virtue, and whom I knew to be publicity hounds and little more. I don't suggest that this is all that Galati is, but I do suspect that if I were still in practice, I might have been wincing when I heard about him being retained rather than someone less bent on public confrontation and, yes, prone to hyperbole.

.

[citizen snips]

5. Its to cold of there.

Its to cold up there for canada to be Colombia.

[Algorem]

8. It is!In the summer we can pick up Canada on the tv and when it's like 80

degrees here on their weather reports there they're saying it's 20 degrees and stuff.20 degrees in August!How the hell can they stand it?Those poor icicle frozen bastards!

[Holly]

9. LOL

don't feel too sorry for us. Sometimes the temp goes as high as 32....that would be celsius of couse.

[pinto]

13. why can't all temperatures be, like, you know, the same?

(ugh)

[bemildred]

7. This guy needs a brain implant. nt

[Rex]

10. What a stupid comment

Just who threatened his life? Was it American sources or Canadians? How many people die a violent death in Canada as compared to Columbia? This guy needs to name names.

[Rainbows]

11. Galati rings a bell ???

Wasn't he the one who was retained to fight against deporting Lt Mike Vreeland the self proclaimed CIA spook who predicted 911 from inside a Canadian jail cell?

[Gman]

12. Nah, it's too far north to grow coca

[Minstrel Boy]

14. Galati is a good man and a respected lawyer.

The threats were genuine, and they weren't the first. (How'd you like to find a dead cat hanging by your door?)

He's made powerful enemies, and had reason to fear for his life.

[bemildred]

15. All right, maybe so.

But he needs to buy himself a clue.
In Colombia, you don't get a warning.