Pull Welcome Mat for 'War Criminal' Bush?

Pull Welcome Mat for 'War Criminal' Bush? 

Vancouver legal experts join movement to rule the U.S. president a violator of Geneva and U.N. conventions.
Fri., Nov. 26th 2004

Judith Ince
TheTyee.ca
 
When George W. Bush visits Canada this week, he's sure to get an earful from demonstrators who see him more as a "war crimes president" than a "war president."
 
While activists prepare to put down their unwelcome mats, lawyers have been sharpening arguments to hold the president accountable for his actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. But amid the flurry of legal briefs flying across the country, the police, the immigration authorities, and the Minister of Justice seem to be unprepared for a brewing collision between Canadian law and political expediency.
 
Gail Davidson, a Vancouver lawyer and co-chair of Lawyers Against the War, says the prime minister should rescind his invitation to Bush, because the president is a "major war criminal."  Her arguments are familiar.  The extent of civilian deaths during the American conquest of Iraq—currently estimated at 100,000 —are chief among them. 
 
Prominent jurists have echoed Davidson's claims.  Most recently, Louise Arbour, the former war crimes prosecutor and current United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called for an investigation into crimes against the Geneva Conventions during the recent American assault on Fallujah.