Weasel Zippers reports-
Code Pink Gets Deported!
Anti-war activist Medea Benjamin of the organization Code Pink is escorted from the event as she disrupts a speech by Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to the National Rifle Association in Washington, Friday, Sept. 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Socialist founder of COde Pink, Medea Banjamin, and activist Ann Wright were deported from Canada today.
WASHINGTON – Canada is setting a “dangerous” precedent by refusing entry to Americans convicted of misdemeanours during peaceful anti-Iraq protests, say two women who couldn’t cross the border this week.
The high-profile activists, who are listed in an FBI database called the National Crime Information Center, say they were detained for more than two hours Wednesday at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, Ont., before being turned away.
“First, the FBI should not have put us on that list,” Ann Wright, a retired army veteran, told a news conference Thursday outside the Canadian Embassy.
“And secondly, the Canadian government should not be doing the dirty political intimidation work for the Bush administration by using that database.”
Wright and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of women’s peace group Code Pink, later said they met with an embassy immigration official and were told they’d have to apply for a special temporary resident’s permit next time they want to enter Canada.
“Canada is the first country, to our knowledge, that is using this beefed-up database of the FBI as its criteria for judging who enter, which is why we consider this so outrageous and dangerous,” said Benjamin.
Next time maybe they’ll remember: Visiting Canada is a privelege, not a right.
And… Getting arrested while screaming at conservatives sometimes has consequences.
