UPDATED: US Peace Activist, Retired Col. Ann Wright, Detained at Ottawa Airport

Updated: US Peace Activist, Retired Col. Ann Wright, Detained at Ottawa Airport

OTTAWA - A former diplomat and retired US army colonel said she was detained at Ottawa airport Thursday while en route to anti-war talks and a news conference with Canadian MPs blasting wrongful detentions.1025 08 1Retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright, was scheduled to speak to media at 1 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) alongside five opposition MPs, outside parliament.

Later, she was to join the wife of Maher Arar, a Canadian who was wrongfully detained as a terror suspect and tortured, and the head of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group for a panel discussion on civil liberties breaches tied to post-9/11 security.

“I’ve been detained and I’ve been banned from Canada for one year,” Wright told AFP. “Now, they’re sending me back to the United States on a 5 p.m. flight” because of a half-dozen US misdemeanor charges stemming from anti-war protests in Washington.

snip//

“I find it unbelievable that because I have misdemeanors in the US, Canada has banned me, even after I’ve been invited here by five members of Parliament,” she said.

“Hopefully, I won’t get sent to Syria (like Maher Arar),” she quipped.

Maher Arar, a Syrian-born software engineer, was detained by US authorities in New York in 2002 while in transit from Tunisia to his home in Canada, and then deported to Syria where he was jailed and tortured for almost one year.

A Canadian judicial report in September 2006 cleared Arar of terror ties and blasted federal police for wrongly labeling him an “Islamic extremist.” The botched case eventually cost Canada’s top policeman his job.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/25/4814/

to just any old misdemeanor, like a traffic violation or failure to have proof of insurance in your possession while driving. I have a sneaking suspicion it only applies to "real" crimes like peaceful anti-war protesting.

Canadians to 'be on the lookout'... :eyes:

and SPECIFICALLY DEMANDED that they harrass her.

And roll out the red carpet for her, since she's a much better quality of guest! That's what this Canadian thinks.

Glad that the opposition NDP is speaking out on this issue:


"OTTAWA – The NDP is urging the Harper government to allow US Peace Advocates Medea Benjamin and retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright to share their message of peace in a public forum on Parliament Hill scheduled for Thursday.

In a letter sent today to Harper, the Public Safety Minister, and Foreign Affairs Minister, the NDP MPs advised that Medea Benjamin and Col. Ann Wright, cofounders of Code Pink, have been invited to address legislators and representatives of civil society in a public forum to be held in Ottawa on October 25. The letter requested the government 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.”

“New Democrats are deeply concerned that Canadian border police are enforcing rules determined not by our own Canadian government, but by the FBI and other US security agencies,” the letter states. “Foreign government ‘watch lists’ should not form the basis for automatically denying entry into Canada of US citizens, or any other nationals. Government policies, not the individuals who oppose them, often present the greater threat to democracy, security and freedom.”

http://www.ndp.ca/page/5813