Three stories featured (briefly) in the news this week point out how fragile a thing our democracy is and serve to underscore how important it is for us all to be vigilant and vocal when its threatened...even if by our own government.

George Galloway: I've been confident all along that Canada remains a country governed by law, rather than the capricious whim of here-today-gone-tomorrow politicians. I was always confident and still am confident that the court will grant permission because really all we're asking is to have a say.

People don't have to agree with it, and many will not. But the Canadian people have a right to hear, and hear not down a crackling telephone line but face-to-face, where they can ask questions and engage in the debate.

It's unbecoming of a country like Canada to ban a fellow commonwealth parliamentarian elected for almost 25 years, five consecutive terms, and a man who can travel in and out of the United States, sometimes on a weekly basis. To say that such a person is a terrorist is deeply insulting to the intelligence of the Canadian people.

News arrives from the north of another great courtroom victory for your columnist, yours truly, and I'm as happy as a bear gulping down a leaping salmon.

Readers may recall that earlier this year while addressing, among others, the audience at the UN building in New York City (site of the mass murder of 9/11) I was banned from entering Canada on the grounds I may be a terrorist.

This because I had delivered a convoy of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip just after it had been flattened by Israel. You know, potentially dangerous stuff, like wheelchairs and ambulances.

The far-right government of that once kindly country has been making a habit of banning dissenters, at the same time welcoming killers like George W Bush for well-paid speaking tours.

And the suspicion is abroad that its role as Benjamin Netanyahu's main international cheerleader may have unduly influenced it in what are surely purely Canadian immigration decisions.

Last week the Canadian Chief Justice granted me leave to appeal against the decision despite ferocious (and expensive) opposition from the Canadian Government.

As only one in 10 of such applications is granted and my legal team are working for nothing it was David v Goliath stuff. And we won.

If the Canadian Tories had any sense they would now back down and let me in. I'm going to win the case if they don't the and there must be better things to spend their country's money on. And if I do win; just think of the crowds, coverage, not to mention book sales when I enter in triumph.

I did warn them, when it comes to courts I always get my man.

The Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney gazetted in the Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the rightwing, last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business.

Supporters of British MP George Galloway are challenging the government's decision to ban him from Canada over his controversial views on Hamas and the war in Afghanistan.

The anti-war MP is scheduled for a four-city Canadian speaking tour beginning on March 30. He launched a U.S. tour today.

James Clark, spokesperson for the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, said the group is "incredulous" that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has banned Galloway, and plans to launch a legal challenge in Ontario provincial court on Tuesday.

"All week we're going to be campaigning and lobbying the federal government to defend freedom of speech and reverse the ban," Clark, whose group is helping organize Galloway's tour, told CTV.ca.

If the government doesn't change its position, a group of Galloway's supporters plan to try and personally escort him across the border on March 30, Clark said.

"We will be organizing a delegation at a border crossing, likely in Quebec, where a delegation of MPs and lawyers will cross into the U.S. to meet Galloway and accompany him across the border," he said.

Galloway has spoken in Canada on a number of occasions without incident -- most recently in 2006 -- and there has never before been an objection from the federal government, Clark said.

"We think this move is politically motivated and is simply about silencing someone who has very strong views on our position on Afghanistan and other issues," Clark said.

He said Galloway has been elected five times to British parliament, has never been charged with a crime, has no criminal record, and "it's unclear just how the government sees him as a national security threat."

The groups campaigning to bring Galloway to Canada include The Council of Canadians, Canadian Civil Liberties Union, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, as well as anti-war coalitions, labour unions and community groups.

"One way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada," Laith Marouf, national branches coordinator of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, said in a news release.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has declined to intervene on Galloway's behalf.

The Canadian Press reports that Kenney's office says Galloway has expressed sympathy for the Taliban in Afghanistan and supported Hamas -- a Palestinian militant group that Canada considers to be a terrorist organization.

Galloway sits as a left-wing Respect MP, following his dismissal from Britain's Labour party in 2003.

Despite the ban, organizers of the Galloway tour are moving forward with plans, in hopes he will be allowed into the country.

He is scheduled to speak four times over the course of a few days:

• March 30 in Toronto
• March 31 in Mississauga
• April 1 in Montreal
• April 2 in Ottawa

Galloway had also been scheduled to speak today in Toronto at a news conference entitled Resisting War from Gaza to Kandahar.

George Galloway, a British member of Parliament, has been banned from Canada on security grounds, the country's immigration service has confirmed.

Mr Galloway, a Respect Party MP, said the ban was "idiotic" and he would look at legal action to try to overturn it.

British media reported the decision was due to his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there.

The anti-war MP was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 because of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war.

Mr Galloway said he was not prepared to accept what he described as an "inexplicable decision" and indicated he would challenge it with all means at his disposal.

"This has further vindicated the anti-war movement's contention that unjust wars abroad will end up consuming the very liberties that make us who we are," he said.

"All right-thinking Canadians, whether they agree with me or not, will oppose this outrageous decision."

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada confirmed the MP would not be allowed into the country on national security grounds.

He said the decision had been taken by border security officials "based on a number of factors" in accordance with the country's immigration act.

Mr Galloway had been due to speak at a public forum, Resisting War from Gaza to Kandahar, in Toronto on 30 March.

In 2006 he was detained "on grounds of national security" at Cairo airport after heading to Egypt to attend a "mock trial" of then PM Tony Blair and then US President George Bush.

Mr Galloway became the figurehead for the anti-war Respect party after being expelled from Labour.

His expulsion followed comments on the Iraq war which Labour chairman Ian McCartney said "incited foreign forces to rise up against British troops".

The party acted following a number of TV interviews, including one in which Mr Galloway accused Tony Blair and President Bush of acting "like wolves" in invading Iraq.

Mr Galloway said it had been a "politically motivated kangaroo court".