Antiwar activists clear border

[cascadiance]

Source: Vancouver Sun

Two Americans allowed in after two hours of questioning
Chantal Eustace, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, June 02, 2008

Diane Wilson, an antiwar activist from Texas, drove over the U.S. border south of Vancouver on Sunday just to see if she could.

Whether or not U.S. antiwar activists are allowed into Canada was key to Sunday's Our Way Home Vancouver Peace Conference at Simon Fraser University's Harbour Centre.

...

The keynote speaker, retired U.S. colonel Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department over the invasion of Iraq, and Medea Benjamin, another leading U.S. political activist, were not expected to make it across the border.

Both were denied entry to Canada last year, with Canadian authorities claiming they are named on a FBI watch list due to misdemeanor convictions stemming from participation in antiwar demonstrations.

But after more than two hours of Canadian questioning at the border crossing at Blaine, the pair arrived at the conference.

...

Read more: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=2ca0e592-8ae4-4ecc-ab89-33dd1a184e46

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Am just now travelling back from the DOXA film festival and read this in the Sun this morning as I was leaving Vancouver. I wonder what she and Diane Wilson were being questioned about for two hours!

If some of us attending the DOXA Film Festival knew she was coming for the speech on Sunday, perhaps we could have talked her in to coming the night before and see "Kill the Messenger" as an honored guest there (given that the director couldn't make it, and Ms. Wright is shown quite a bit in the film herself). I had an extra ticket I would have donated to the cause. It would have really been awesome if she could have described the experience she just went through too there. Would have probably brought the house down then.

At least her being able to get into Canada this time around is hopefully a sign that things are changing for the better soon!

[Ian David]

1. It would be funnier if they moved a whole, simulated M*A*S*H unit with fake tanks across the border.