CANADA BARS ENTRY TO US PEACEMAKERS

Posted October 15, 2007 in [Security]

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From CodePink's website

October 4, 2007: Ann Wright, retired U.S. army colonel and former diplomat who quit in opposition to the Iraq war, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and founding director of Global Exchange, tested Canada's policy towards US peace activists on Thursday. They were on their way to Toronto at the invitation of the Toronto Stop the War Coalition but were denied entry into Canada due to previous arrests for demonstrating against the Iraq War outside the White House and in the Capitol. Their names have been added to FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database that apparently dictates Canadian border policy. The border agents at the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls who barred Medea and Ann said the mere fact that they were listed on the NCIC was sufficient to bar them from entry.

“This is outrageous. I'm appealing to Canadians not to treat peaceful activists like common criminals. I travel all over the world on a regular basis and Canada is the first country to use the NCIC to keep out people like us,” said Medea.

Her sentiments were echoed by NDP MP Olivia Chow, who represents the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina. She said it was “absurd” to bar entry to anti-war activists. “These are not terrorists; why do we have to protect Canadians from them? We should not be allowing the FBI or Mr. Bush to dictate our entry policy.”

"I am alarmed to learn that Canadian border police are enforcing rules that have been determined by the FBI and other U.S.-based agencies," Chow wrote to Stephen Brereton, Canada's consul general in Buffalo, N.Y. "In Canada, peaceful protest is not a criminal activity, despite how some U.S. agencies may regard it."

Both Ann and Medea have previously visited Canada for anti-war meetings, sometimes at the invitation of Canadian activist groups or political parties. As recently as August, Medea had been admitted into Canada without problem.

Ann, meantime, was allowed into Canada on a three-day temporary visa in August to protests talks between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President George W. Bush on the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

"First, the FBI should not have put us on that list," Ann told a news conference Thursday outside the Canadian Embassy. "And secondly, the Canadian government should not be doing the dirty political intimidation work for the Bush administration by using that database."

"Canada is the first country, to our knowledge, that is using this beefed-up database of the FBI as its criteria for judging who enter, which is why we consider this so outrageous and dangerous," said Medea. "If Canada starts to do this and keeps out people like us, maybe other countries will do it as well. We think it's important to stop this right away."

Using Canada's criteria, even civil rights leader Martin Luther King wouldn't have made it into the country, she said. "We think this is absurd. It's outrageous. It must be reversed."

"While we are fighting with our own FBI to get these offences off the list, we hope that friends in Canada will push the immigration service to start using common sense and to allow us back in."