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October 26, 2007 On October 19, Alexa McDonough and five other NDP MPs sent Prime Minister Harper a letteradvising him that they had invited U.S. peace activists Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin to speak at a public event called Peacebuilders Without Borders: Challenging the Post-9/11 Canada-U.S. Security Agenda. On October 26, Wright was denied entry to Canada for the second time in a month. Integrate This! readers will remember Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel turned peace activist, from her participation in the Montebello SPP protest two months ago, at which time she was harrased by Canadian border officials for her activities in the U.S. peace movement but eventually let into the country after paying a $200 fine. Earlier this month she and fellow activist Medea Benjamin were denied entry to Canada at the Detroit-Windsor crossing on the grounds that their names were in an FBI criminal database. This week, despite the NDP's letter to Harper urging him to "ensure unimpeded entry into Canada, to enable Ms. Benjamin and Colonel Wright to share their message of peace with Members of Parliament, and the broader community," Wright was again denied entry to Canada (Benjamin couldn't make it because she was arrested during a protest on October 24). "Her crime?" wrote the Canadian Press, "A series of misdemeanour convictions for unlawful or disorderly conduct involving non-violent protests on Capitol Hill." The day before Wright was detained and flown back to the United States, Derek Mellon, a spokesperson with the Canada Border Services Agency, told the Associated Press that, "Several factors are used in determining admissibility into Canada, including involvement in criminal activity, in human rights violations, in organized crime, security, health or financial reasons." On really? So where does Wright fit into that list? Nowhere according to immigration lawyer Paul Copeland. Wright was once charged with criminal trespass in the United States while protesting the war in Iraq, a charge with no equivalent in Canadian criminal law. "There's no basis to keep them out," Copeland told the Associated Press. Yet Wright was kept out while Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day continues to assert that Canada has, “very distinct guidelines of who may come into the country and who may not," and that, "We exercise those [guidelines] vigorously for the protection and for the interests of Canada, and we will continue to do that.” Canada's border policies are certainly distinct in that they are apparently designed to keep out peace protesters in order to vigorously protect the reputation of the U.S. government. "This is causing a great stir in the peace action community because of the probably 15,000 Americans that have been arrested since this war began," Wright told CP. "Many of them travel to Canada all the time." CODEPINK, a U.S. anti-war women's group, has been urging Americans and Canadians to sign a petition that calls, "on the Canadian government to reverse its policy and extend a warm welcome to U.S. peacemakers and other social activists who use the time-honored tradition of engaging in civil disobedience as a way to change unjust policies." Click here to sign this petition.
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