Travel By Iraq War Protestors Restricted

(AP)  Peace activists Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright have been arrested in the U.S. while protesting the Iraq war, but they never dreamed that would prevent them from entering Canada.

The arrests landed Benjamin's and Wright's names in an FBI-run database, the National Crime Information Center, which Canada also relies on to screen visitors. When the two women visited the country in August, they were told they would have to apply for "criminal rehabilitation" and pay $200 if they wanted to visit again. Neither did.

On Wednesday, Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, and Wright, a retired Army colonel, walked into Canada at Niagara Falls to test whether they really would be denied entry because of their anti-war-related arrests.

They were.

Now, Benjamin and Wright are asking why the names of people arrested during peaceful protests would be included in an FBI-maintained database meant to track fugitives, potential terrorists, missing persons and violent felons.

"We are certainly no threat to the Canadian people," Benjamin said.

Benjamin said she and Wright, who resigned as a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia in 2003, planned to protest at the Canadian embassy in Washington on Thursday and to ask the FBI to remove the protest charges from the NCIC database.

The protesters believe the inclusion of activists' names in the database is a form of political intimidation of people opposed to Bush administration policies.

FBI spokesman Paul Moskal said that while the FBI maintains the database, the data is supplied by arresting agencies and others.

John Curr III, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union in Buffalo, said that by relying on the database to screen visitors, Canada is participating in the administration's suppression of free speech.

"The Canadians accepted wholesale once you're on the list, you don't get into Canada," Wright said shortly before walking across the Rainbow Bridge into Ontario. She and Benjamin spent 2½ hours in the customs inspection area before being sent back to the United States.

Derek Mellon, a spokesman with the Canada Border Services Agency, said he was unable to comment on Wright and Benjamin specifically, but said all foreign visitors must meet longstanding admissibility requirements, such as having valid travel documents and a clean criminal record.

Canada generally refuses entry to anyone who has been convicted of a criminal offense, regardless of the nature of it, he said. Those with convictions, however, may apply to be rehabilitated, which involves filing paperwork and paying a processing fee ranging from $200 to $1,000.

"We welcome millions of American visitors every year," he said.

[michellem99-2009]

It is what is on the staute in NY that allows the BAG WORMS as my sighted room mate say. So we are over run with illgals. They are the ones that caused 9/11/01. Bush loves them. That fence will never be built as they are cheap labour,.

[mudrose-2009]

Where''s the fence? We should be doing likewise. If we caught all these clowns at our borders and charged them a fee before we deported them, perhaps they wouldn''t come back. I mean literally take away their possessions, jewelry, furniture, charge them. Good that Canada did this. They don''t want riff-raff in their country. We shouldn''t want them either. A far as code pink, I wouldn''t let any of them near my own children let alone cross borders. They are mentally deranged dolts.

[speakinup]

What these two bimbos don''t remember is, the constitution guarantees you the right to the pursue happiness. You have to do the pursuing.

They made their choice as to what makes them happy, and, the Canadians have decided they don''t want any of it. Tough!

Ignorance should be painful - and the one that was the senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia probably wasn''t even ignorant, but she still has an axe to grind because she feels entitled. So pathetic. What a bimbo.

This is news ?

[speakinup]

Ignorance should be painful, and is.

[michellem99-2009]

I will not join anything that may cause problems and my Maine friend it nothing to do with being gent/lady but they as people barred from their say cause they know as I do that war is a 2rd Nam and illegal. I learnt in my Carmel Me classroom that congress delared only 2 wars crzmeat as yer were taught in yer class that WW1 and WW2. The rest not legal wars. So this nation say one thing and another. Sure I am against the war but I don''t need to join a group. So Canda need to stop listening to the USA for the reason we don''t have our sh it together as we allow gangs,drug nuts,illegals to run the streets. A nanny govt. As erasmus6 has stated in her posts the problems here.

[slim1h2o]

Posted by toldyouso21 at 02:11 PM : Oct 04, 2007

That''s the way the legal system has worked for years, Alchol, weed, you name it, if you have money, you get rehabed.

It''s just another way to "bilk cash" out of the middle class. They''re putting the s c rews to us.

[toldyouso21]

"Those with convictions, however, may apply to be rehabilitated, which involves filing paperwork and paying a processing fee ranging from $200 to $1,000. "

What a fvcked up farce!!! How does one get "rehabilitated just by paying some money? the only thing likely to get "rehabilitated are the coffers of the Canadanian government or individual custom officers'' pockets.

So how does one "rehabilitate an idealogy? BRAINWASHING? Canada is complicit in oppression and aiding the Bush regime in suppression of opposition and free speech. Shame on them. Whatever shall they do when the guard and rules change in the White HOuse?

Just another way to make a buck off the backs of Americans. BOYCOTT CANADA.

[fiteit1]

So, why doesn''t our leaders grow a back bone and stop this or not allow anyone with a criminal back ground into the United States? It sound to me like the current dictatorship is not just allowing Canada to do this but encouraging it by providing specific information and then saying we don''t want to talk about it.

[wrj001]

This will teach those commies from protesting a fraudulent war that has killed tens of thousands of women and children.

[gunnerv1]

That ought to learn you to keep your nose clean! It went on your permanent record.