Canada bars British lawmaker over Hamas support

OTTAWA, (AFP)

British lawmaker George Galloway has been blocked from visiting Canada because of his support of Hamas, which is banned here, the Canadian immigration minister's office said Friday.

"I'm sure Galloway has a large Rolodex of friends in regimes elsewhere in the world willing to roll out the red carpet for him," Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, told AFP.

"Canada, however, won't be one of them," he said in an email.Galloway was to give a speech in Toronto at the end of the month, but has been denied entry over his opposition to Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said Britain's Sun newspaper.

In a comment piece published in Britain's Guardian newspaper on Saturday, Galloway described the ban as "absurd, hypocritical, and in vain" because his allies in the country were seeking a judicial review. "And there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me," he wrote.

"From coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard - one way or another."