…Canada Uses It To Ban Protesters From Entry

Two well-respected US peace activists, CODEPINK and Global Exchange cofounder Medea Benjamin and retired Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, were denied entry into Canada On October third. The two women were headed to Toronto to discuss peace and security issues at the invitation of the Toronto Stop the War Coalition. At the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Bridge they were detained, questioned and denied entry.

“In my case, the border guard pulled up a file showing that I had been arrested at the US Mission to the UN where, on International Women’s Day, a group of us had tried to deliver a peace petition signed by 152,000 women around the world,” says Benjamin. “For this, the Canadians labeled me a criminal and refused to allow me in the country.”

“The FBI’s placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies,” says Colonel Wright, who was also Deputy US Ambassador in four countries. “The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database as the criteria for entering the country.” Both Wright and Benjamin plan to request their files from the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act and demand that arrests for peaceful, non-violent actions be expunged from international records. “It’s outrageous that Canada is turning away peacemakers protesting a war that does not have the support of either US or Canadian citizens,” says Benjamin.

“In the past, Canada has always welcomed peace activists with open arms. This new policy, obviously a creature of the Bush administration, is shocking and we in the US and Canada must insist that it be overturned. Four members of the Canadian Parliament–Peggy Nash, Libby Davies, Paul Dewar and Peter Julian– expressed outrage that the peace activists were barred from Canada and vow to change this policy.

Ann Wright told OpEdNews that this was the second time the two Code Pink activists had been turned away from the border, the first event ocurring on August 19th.

Wright explained, “We decided to go to Canadian border to push the envelope to see if the Canadian Gov would not let us into Canada again until we had been “criminally rehabilitated.”

Read entire article.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

1 Comments

• At October 8, 2007, g. kortes, vancouver, WA wrote:

  This is an outrage! Both because it should NOT happen and because it has not appeared in the news publications.

  I have met both Wright and Benjamin in Portland and Crawford, TX. They are strong women leaders in the peace movement.

  Thank you for having this web site for news we might not have known.

  This list against our people must stop. Our country limits our rights of travel. Unthinkable.

Or were they?
Bizarre protest video from a protest on behalf of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, wherein three men dressed somewhat like the Black Block-types who are also there suddenly try to throw rocks and otherwise start trouble. When Don Coles - the president of the union - calls them out as Agents Provocateurs, the crowd turns on them, some yelling "policier!" (police en francais). The Black Blockers obviously don't know them and turn on them as well.
The police finally intervene and take the three down and ever so gently cuff and stuff them.

Click here to view the embedded video.
It's something else!
We've all heard stories like this, but this - if true - is pretty amazing.

Maybe Canadian cops are gentler than ours, but you usually see a cop driving a knee into someone's back or neck when they're being zip-tied. And all three got leisurely walked off camera, rather than dragged.

One damning little detail that has everyone buzzing about this is how the cops and these particular bad guys seem to buy their boots from the same outfitter. Look here.

Read more about it here.

Scary, and worth noting.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

1 Comments

• At August 25, 2007, arturo wrote:

  This is a great video. Good for the union guy. This stuff goes on all the time, the provocateurs were not very discreet.

  I have a relative who has spent 20+ years as a labor organizer and negotiator and can tell very similar stories. I hope they follow up and ID (freeze frame) the guy they unmasked.

UPDATED 6-5-07

Hi friends, I want to apologize for going off half-cocked on this story.
I too was sucked in by the mainstream myth about Chavez going too far. I am a free speech fundamentalist and don’t believe there are very many legitimate reasons for censorship. I also believe that we need to be vigilant against government censorship, even if it’s being done by someone we hold in high esteem. but I didn’t at the time realize the real story behind the closing down of RCTV and that it was done through legal channels - rather than the Chavez government acting unilaterally. I also have been doing a little reading into the National Endowment for Democracy’s involvement into Venezuelan politics and the anti-Chavez sentiment that they are attempting to stir up. So, in the interest of anti-censorship, I leave this post intact - warts-and-all, but encourage you to read the discussion below the fold.
Thanks.

Sad.
After Chavez had himself virtually declared President-for-Life, I should’ve seen this coming.

Anonimo in Venezuela says,
In this video, you can see the strange and sad way that the news program on RCTV shut down this past Friday, after Venezuela’s president arbitrarily decided to close it.Each worker at the TV station, hundreds of people whose jobs depend on this network which has been critical of Chavez, will be unemployed tomorrow.

The station closes Monday May 28th thanks to a political decision through which Chavez seeks to gain total control of the basic freedoms of the country’s citizens.

The world needs to know. Only you guys abroad can help us spread the word.
Chavez spends hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying around the world with governments and earning many international support at the expense of our taxes, natural resources, and freedoms.

Many of us are scared, but we are willing to do something about it.

Chavez transforming into a genuine dictator is good news for the Bushco Globo-fascists. Now they have yet another country to ‘liberate’. Sadly, the people of Venezuela get the hose in the end, and I don’t mean in a riot.

Watch video, which unfortunately isn’t subtitled, here.
Watch ensuing protest here.

From Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing, who is touring Central America as of this writing.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

8 Comments

• At May 28, 2007, bushtool wrote:

  I'd recommend reading this before you conclude Chavez is doing anything wrong by shutting down RCTV (be sure to read the comments below the article too).

  The station's license expired. Venezuela still has 4 other TV stations. RCTV committed treason against the government and should have been prosecuted. 70-80% of the population of Venezuela adores Chavez. Does that sound like a dictator?

  I'm sure the FCC wouldn't hesitate to shut down a TV station that was threatening to overthrow the US government.

  IMO 3/4 of the reason the USA has turned into an imperialist and fascist state is the failure to properly regulate television.

  There has been a ton of propaganda about Chavez and IMO this is just more of the same. I'd be worried if Chavez was repressing his people but it appears he is doing everything in his power to help Venezuelans.

  "He who controls the message controls the masses." Joseph Goebbels

• At May 28, 2007, g. kortes wrote:

  Rich presents a lop-sided, narrow view that is pure propaganda. We don't need that in a progressive site. It belongs in the junk tabloids.

• At May 28, 2007, bushtool wrote:

  There is another article about this matter here.

  Until I read and chewed on this a while, I too thought Chavez was going in a wrong direction so I can understand Rich's concern about his actions.

• At May 28, 2007, Rich wrote:

  Yep.

  I done jumped the gun on that one.

  The story I read early this morning (before java had a chance to do its magic) was a little on the panicky side. I also ran across the Fair.org article John points to. I also at times think that - besides the obvious propaganda - that there's an ongoing fake grassroots movement going on to discredit Chavez. We should still question what he does with regards to free speech.

  Sorry folks. I will pull this article after enough offended parties read this.

• At May 28, 2007, bushtool wrote:

  Please don't pull the post. It's good to discuss Chavez and media bias. For all we know, perhaps the CIA was secretly running the TV station. How's that for propagandizing?

• At May 28, 2007, bushtool wrote:

  Chavez's apparent absolute power makes me nervous too. We here in the US are reminded quite frequently of the result of having a screwed up government with one or two individuals wielding too much control.

• At May 28, 2007, FOIA Gras wrote:

  I agree with BT, don't pull the post. Being a progressive site does not mean suppressing articles or viewpoints that don't support a progressive view. That is what talk radio has been for the last 20 years for the right. People should have the courage of their convictions to have an open, honest debate on the issues. When I saw this post by Rich I remembered the Extra! article debunking exactly the viewpoint he was positing but BT scooped me on citing the article. Now Rich has the counterpoint which may be closer to the real story. Isn't that what free speech is about?

• At June 5, 2007, bushtool wrote:

  Here is an OpEd on Chavez and the Venezuela political situation.