Shoes thrown to protest Bush

Three Canadians were arrested and others threw shoes in protest against George W. Bush today when he gave his first post-presidential speech in western Canada's oil patch. The footwear was tossed at an effigy of the 43rd US president outside a Calgary conference centre where Mr Bush was to speak to 1500 people at a luncheon, said Colette Lemieux of the Canadian Peace Alliance. Some 200 protesters from across the country had gathered for the demonstration against Mr Bush's invasion of Iraq and rendition of terror suspects, she said. They traded insults with guests lined up around the building, and "three people were taken away by police", she said. "It was a heated rally, but not a violent rally." A Calgary police spokeswoman said one protester had been charged with obstruction and assaulting a policeman. Charges against two others were not announced. "We had shoes sent in (to us) from across the country," Ms Lemieux said earlier, charging Mr Bush is a "war criminal" who must be prosecuted for his former administration's policies in the US "war on terror". "It doesn't matter that he is no longer president," she said. "A bank robber who stops holding up banks can and must still be prosecuted for his crimes." The same applies to Mr Bush, she said. The address, billed as "A Conversation with George W. Bush", was the first of at least 10 speeches to be announced in Canada, Asia and Europe, a source familiar with his plans said. The Washington Speaker's Bureau, which is organising his post-presidential speaking tour, listed the Calgary event simply as "Remarks by George W. Bush". Local media said guests paid as much as $C400 ($A477) each to attend. Earlier, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said Mr Bush arrived in a private jet and surprised patrons of an Italian restaurant when he dropped in for a meal yesterday. "By all accounts the president was friendly, relaxed, cordial, (and) expressed many times he was happy to be in Calgary," the public broadcaster said. Alberta is a generally conservative province with an oil industry that could be especially welcoming to the former president.