VANCOUVER - Hundreds of people gathered on the steps of the Vancouver Club tonight to demand a foreign criminal be arrested.
That foreign criminal they say is former US Vice President Dick Cheney, who is speaking at a sold-out event promoting his new book.
Demonstrators are demanding Cheney be prosecuted for his war crimes. They say he condoned the use of interrogation techniques like water boarding and sleep deprivation during his time in Bush administration.
They say these techniques are considered illegal under Canadian and international law, so Cheney should not be allowed into Canada.
“Most of Europe is a no-go zone for members of Bush administration. They take human rights and war time law very seriously there, so both George Bush and Dick Cheney have cancelled trips to Europe,” says Derrick O'keefe with stopwar.ca. “Unfortunately we see Canada under the Harper government becoming a sort of safe haven, where foreign war criminals are not seriously prosecuted.”
Gail Davidson with Lawyers Against the War says we should not be rolling out red carpet before people with a questionable record on torture.
“That certainly signals to other powerful people who want to use torture as a mean of control and oppression, that they can do so and expect impunity in Canada,” says Davidson.
There was heavy security in the area. It does not appear any arrests have been made, but some guests had to be escorted into the building by police for the fear of getting heckled by protesters.
Some of them paid as much as $500 a ticket for the dinner and told Global that despite the protest, they are interested in hearing what Cheney has to say and should not be stopped from attending the event.
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