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A letter sent to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Justice who is also Canada's Attorney General, asking that Bush's planned visit be cancelled and that Bush be declared a persona non grata.

Dear Prime Minister Martin:

It was with absolute dismay that we learned of the planned visit of
President Bush to Canada on November 30th 2004.

Surely you are aware of the many grave crimes against humanity and war
crimes for which President Bush stands properly accused by the world,
starting with the Nuremberg Tribunal's 'supreme international crime' of
waging an aggressive war against Iraq in defiance of international law and
the Charter of the United Nations, and including systematic and massive
violations of the Geneva Conventions Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War and Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, as
well as the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. As recently as November 16,
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and former war crimes prosecutor
Louise Arbour called for an investigation into crimes against the Geneva
Conventions in the assault by US forces on the densely populated city of
Fallujah.

The terrible toll in life and limb of these crimes was documented in a study
carried out by the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in
Baltimore and published in the October 29, 2004 issue of the British Medical
Journal The Lancet which conservatively estimated that the war had taken
100,000 Iraqi lives, mostly women and children. This was well within the
range predicted before the war, for example by a British affiliate of
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War who, in November
2002, assessed the probable death toll at a minimum of 48,000 deaths, mostly
civilians, and predicted that post-war conditions would cost an additional
200,000 lives.

The President's responsibility for these offences derives not only from his
'command responsibility' as Commander in Chief of US forces, for crimes that
he knew were being committed, or ignored through willful blindness, but did
nothing to prevent; it also comes from his direct involvement in the
formulation of policy. This includes his personal involvement not only in
the devising and waging of an aggressive, illegal war, but also of the
unlawful refusal to grant prisoner of war status to prisoners of war,
contrary to specific provisions of the Geneva Conventions, an act repudiated
in the US Courts. It also includes the approval of techniques of
interrogation by his direct subordinate, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, that
legally and morally constitute torture and that led directly to the
disgraceful violence against Iraqi prisoners, for example at the prison at
Abu Ghraib.

As you know, not only are these acts criminal under international law, but
many of them are also criminal under Canadian law, under laws enacted in
pursuance of our international obligations, most importantly the Crimes
Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, put in place just four years ago under
a Liberal government. They also violate the provisions on torture in the
Canadian Criminal Code.

By these laws, Canadians and non-Canadians alike are liable to prosecution
in Canada, no matter where in the world they have committed their crimes.

Furthermore, as the Attorney General can advise, the fact that these crimes
have been committed by Mr. Bush while President of the United States is
absolutely irrelevant to his personal liability to prosecution in Canada,
according to principles established at Nuremberg and universally recognized
since then, including by the British House of Lords in the Pinochet case in
1999. And if President Bush were to visit Canada after leaving office, we
would be seeking the Attorney General's permission under section 9 of the
Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act and section 7 of the Criminal
Code to commence proceedings against him.

However, as you also know, should President Bush come to Canada now, while
still President, he would be clothed with both diplomatic and head of state
immunity from our laws and we would be powerless to bring him to justice.

Your invitation in these circumstances, therefore, shows contempt for both
Canadian and international law and is a grievous insult to the literally
hundreds of thousands of victims of President Bush's international crimes.

It is also our belief that the invitation endangers Canadians' security at
home and abroad, because it is a departure from our steadfast refusal to
this point to participate in this criminal war of the Bush administration.
In fact, it is our belief that this invitation can only act as an
encouragement to President Bush in his continuing criminal activity,
providing him with an important platform in this, his first post re-election
foreign visit, to defend illegal US actions in Iraq and to improve his
international standing despite them, all this against the wishes of the
majority of Canadians.

Indeed, we feel bound to point out that your invitation to President Bush
may thus constitute an abetting of the crimes he and his administration and
military continue to commit. As such you and your colleagues could be
personally liable to prosecution under the Crimes against Humanity and War
Crimes Act by virtue of section 21 of the Canadian Criminal Code, for crimes
so serious that they are punishable in Canada by up to life imprisonment.

Abetting a crime, as the Attorney General will advise, is regarded as
equally criminal to actually committing it and is complete when one
intentionally, knowingly, or with willful blindness encourages the
commission of a crime by another.

Nor would President Bush's immunity be capable of shielding you and your
colleagues from prosecution, because, as the Attorney General will advise,
the immunity applies only to foreign officials visiting Canada and not to
members of the Canadian government itself. Nor does the inability to
prosecute a criminal affect the criminal liability of an abettor.
It is for all these reasons we urgently request a meeting with you, the
Foreign Minister, the Attorney General or your representatives in Ottawa, so
that we might have the opportunity to elaborate on these matters and to
persuade you to declare President Bush persona non grata in Canada, or at
least to rescind this invitation, and thus to avoid implicating yourselves
and Canada in the most serious of international crimes.

Sincerely,

Michael Mandel and Gail Davidson on behalf of Lawyers against the War (LAW)
a Canada-based committee of jurists and others with members in thirteen
countries.

Contacts:
Michael Mandel, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, 4700
Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3. Tel: 416 736-5039, Fax:
416-736-5736, Email: MMandel@osgoode.yorku.ca