Winnie Mandela and Snoop Dog
Those two names don’t fit into the same headline very often, but the report that the Government of Canada has denied a visa for Winnie Mandela makes it oh so appropriate. You see, it wasn’t that long ago that the U.K. denied entry to Rapper Snoop Dog; something to do with outstanding gun charges in the USA as I recall. Or was it his prior conviction? Same thing happened to him when he tried to go to the Australian MTV awards a few weeks ago. His lack of acceptance by foreign governments didn’t prevent the CBC from breathlessly interviewing him on live television during game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but I digress. (They even asked him to rap.)
Their will be quite a series of twists and turns over the next few days as Foreign Affairs tries to spin this story. Not doubt the lines will include:
– PMO wasn’t involved in the decision;
– if they were involved, it was only when we informed them of the decision we had taken without them having influenced the decision to deny the application;
– PM was never informed of her application;
– we only advised Minister Peter MacKay after we had decided to deny the application;
– the South African gov’t asked us to deny the visa, so protocol required that we do so;
– RCMP had security concerns regarding the site she was to give her speech at;
– there was not enough warning to prepare her visa;
– etc.
Hard to imagine that Commonwealth nations would put Ms. Mandela in the same category as Snoop, but as former Star publisher John Honderich would say, “you can’t make this stuff up”.
MRM
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