Activists Defy U.S.-Canada Border Policy

Oct 24, 01:23 PM

Current Headlines: By KAREN MATTHEWS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK Two U.S. peace activists who were denied entry to Canada because their arrests for protesting the war in Iraq landed them on an FBI crime database say they will try again to enter the country on Thursday.

The activists and their supporters presented petitions at Canadian consulates in several U.S. cities on Tuesday demanding that Canada, a country that welcomed American draft resisters during the Vietnam War, reverse the policy that is keeping foes of the Iraq war from visiting there.

"The Bush administration has convinced the Canadian government to do its dirty work, to deny entry to people who are dissenting against Bush administration policies," said Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and diplomat who was turned back at the border with Medea Benjamin of the anti-war group Code Pink.

Wright gave petitions that she said were signed by 15,000 people to an official at the Canadian consulate in Manhattan on Tuesday. Activists left copies of the petitions at Canadian consulates in Washington, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well.

Wright and Benjamin learned when they tried to visit Canada in August that their names were in an FBI-maintained database meant to track fugitives, potential terrorists, missing persons and violent felons. They were told that they would have to apply for "criminal rehabilitation" and pay $200 if they ever wanted to visit again.

The two women walked into Canada at Niagara Falls on Oct. 3 to test the policy and were again turned back.

Wright said the policy appears to be new, as she has traveled to Canada twice in recent years without incident.

But Derek Mellon, a spokesman with the Canada Border Services Agency, said the requirements have not changed.

"Admissibility of travelers seeking to enter Canada is considered on a case-by-case basis on the specific facts presented by the applicant in each case," Mellon said. "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."

Mellon said he could not comment on individual cases.

Wright, who resigned as a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia in 2003, said she and Benjamin both were arrested on misdemeanor charges stemming from anti-war activities.

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