SHOES FOR BUSH

Three Canadians were arrested and others threw shoes in protest against George W. Bush when he gave his first post-presidential speech in western Canada. The footwear was tossed at an effigy of the 43rd US president outside a Calgary conference centre where Bush was to speak to some 1,500 people at a luncheon. Some 200 protestors from across the country had gathered for the demonstration against Bush’s invasion of Iraq and rendition of terror suspects. They traded insults with guests lined up around the building. These shoes were sent, rather collected, from across the country. The protestors called Bush a “war criminal” who must be prosecuted for his former administration’s policies in the US “war on terror.” Colette Lemieux of the Canadian Peace Alliance, the organisers of the protest, said, “It doesn’t matter that he is no longer president. A bank robber who stops holding up banks can and must still be prosecuted for his crimes.”