Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian leader and activist, and one of the real, credible hopes for peace in the region was to speak in Toronto tomorrow night. I received this notice a few minutes ago:
CJPME regrets to announce that its Canadian tour this weekend with Palestinian leader Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is cancelled. The Canadian government delayed the issuance of Barghouti's visa to the point where Barghouti missed two key flights, resulting in a cancellation of his tour in Canada. All individuals who purchased on-line tickets for the Barghouti events will be automatically reimbursed. You will receive a separate email from TicketWeb to confirm the reimbursement to your credit care. Please address any other questions and concerns to CJPME's main email at info@cjpme.org The delays with Dr. Barghouti's visa were brought to the attention of Foreign Affairs and Citizenship and Immigration as early as Wednesday March 17th, with Minister Cannon being directly advised of the situation. On Thursday, March 18th, the Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration advised the Bloc Quebecois critic that officials were aware of the urgency of the matter, but were still doing checks. When the visa was finally issued after business hours on Friday, Dr. Barghouti had already, by default, missed half his tour, with no guarantee that space on flights would allow him to make the final two days of his visit. In the past, Dr. Barghouti has received a visa to Canada within 24 hours after applying. CJPME and Dr. Barghouti are committed to doing the tour later this Spring, once the obstacles put in place by the Harper government are cleared. Please watch CJPME's email announcements to know when the tour is rescheduled. Sorry for this unfortunate news. Nevertheless, this simply forces us to redouble our efforts to bring Dr. Barghouti's important message to Canada.
This met no security needs and was done with the full knowledge of the Minister and undoubtedly the Prime Minister. This is one more example of the petty and vindictive treatment that is a day to day reality for Palestinians. Shame on this government.
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