George Galloway, the scary clown

Why let Galloway in?

It is easy to write off George Galloway, the former U.K. politician who flew to Canada over the weekend, as a clown.

Most people in his own country know him for his bizarre appearance on the reality TV show Big Brother, where Galloway and other C-list celebrities lived together in a house.

Prancing around in a pink, full-body unitard was strange enough. But one night Galloway decided he was a house cat. He got down on all fours and pretended to drink milk from the hands of another aging star, who petted him and pretended to stroke his whiskers. Google it: Galloway and cat. It’s funny-creepy.

But clowns can be scary, too.

“I personally am about to break the sanctions,” he declared at a Gaza press conference he held with terrorist group Hamas. “We carried a lot of cash here … and we make no apology.”

On live TV, he handed wads of cash to Ismail Haniyeh, the senior political leader of Hamas.

“This is not charity,” he clarified. “This is politics.”

And if anyone wondered what the money was for, Galloway was clear on that, too. Referring to the Jews, he said “we can drive them away.”

Galloway says he’s just a supporter of the people of Gaza. “I am not a supporter of Hamas, but I am a supporter of democracy.”

Galloway lives for attention. As a newly elected MP, he boasted that at a poverty conference in Mykonos, “I actually had sexual intercourse with some of the people in Greece.”

He proceeded to do the same to his own leader, Tony Blair, over the war in Iraq, and was expelled from the Labour Party. He was suspended from Parliament for abusing taxpayer funds to promote a pro-Iraq charity he created.

That charity was later found to have received large donations diverted from Saddam Hussein’s oil-for-food program, though Galloway denies he knew the source of the money.

It was inevitable a one-man show like Galloway would soon start a one-man party, ironically called Respect. But soon voters tired of his Jew-baiting and general nuttiness, and he was turfed this spring.

Galloway thrives on attention. He’ll do anything to get it, whether it’s pretending to be a cat, or flying to Iraq to tell Saddam Hussein, “sir, I salute your courage.”

He doesn’t have the British Parliament to play around with anymore.

Which is why he’s here.

In Canada, we allow odious opinions — it’s one of the things that distinguishes our society from Saddam’s prison nation.

But we have a rule against actually helping terrorists. Section 37 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act says helping terrorists anywhere in the world makes you ineligible for entry into Canada. And Galloway personally handed Hamas tens of thousands of dollars, stating it wasn’t for charity.

In March of 2009, Galloway was warned if he tried to enter Canada, he might be kept out. He didn’t try to enter, but sued Canada.

Last week, Galloway’s suit was thrown out, since the government hadn’t actually stopped him.

Galloway flew to Canada over the weekend. And border security waved him through with a smile.

Galloway’s odious political views aren’t illegal. But fundraising for Hamas is.

So why was Galloway, bankroller of Hamas, let in?

It’s a question Stephen Rigby, the dozing head of Canadian Border Services Agency, must be called on by Parliament to answer.