Interviewers note: I interviewed Ann Wright in June of this year. Ann has,
in fact, been interviewed by TO's Geoffrey Millard
before, although, I said at the beginning of this interview that it was her
first on camera interview with TO. Ann is terrific, very knowledgeable and incredibly
committed. Sacrifice comes naturally to this lady; she's a real inspiration.
ma/TO
Why I Was Detained by Canadian Authorities
By Ann Wright
t r u t h o u t | Report
Wednesday 22 August 2007
On August 19, I flew to Ottawa, Canada to speak at alternative events during
the third Security and Prosperity Partnership conference among George Bush,
Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon, heads of state of the US, Canada and Mexico.
Instead of meeting with 17 US war resisters, who now live in Canada, and later
participating in the press conference and panel on the adverse consequences
of the "Partnership" between governments and corporations on security
(no-fly lists, fingerprinting, sharing of security data, environmental, bulk
water sales, energy, workers rights and regulatory issues, among many other),
I spent almost four hours detained by Canadian immigration in the Ottawa international
airport - thanks to the long reach of the FBI.
It all began when an immigration official who was checking my passport noticed
a photo identification band on my right wrist and asked if I had recently been
released from the hospital. I said no, it was a peaceful, non-violent protest
in the United States. I said I had paid a fine along with 46 others arrested
for occupying Congressman John Conyers's office and I now used the wrist bracelet
as a symbol of the responsibility of citizens to hold accountable its Congress.
The immigration officer shook his head and then escorted me to a secondary
screening area where another officer typed my name into a computer that accessed
the US National Criminal Information Center's (NCIC) computerized data, that
contains the criminal records of US citizens. Despite international travel to
England, Italy, Jordan, Syria, Cuba and twice to Canada in the past two years
since my first arrest in September 2005, this was the first time I have joined
the ranks of thousands of persons each day who are subjected to secondary screening
around the world.
After looking intently at the computer screen, the officer raised one eyebrow,
turned to me and asked, "Have you been arrested more than once?" I
replied, "Yes, but all for peaceful, non-violent protests against an illegal
war, all misdemeanors." The officer said "There are six arrests on
your record." She then said that Canada had no category called misdemeanors
- anything on NCIC was considered by the Canadian Immigration as criminal actions,
deportable offenses.
Quickly, I was taken into a third room where another officer took over an hour
going through my suitcases and backpack. As I was traveling from the national
Veterans for Peace conference in St. Louis through Ottawa to speak during the
visit of George Bush and on to Bush's vacation site in Kennebunkport, Maine,
I had with me many t-shirts lettered with a variety of peace and stop-the-war
slogans including "Troops Home Now," "Impeach Bush and Cheney,"
"Arrest Bush," "Arrest Cheney First," "No War on Iran"
and "We Will Not be Silent", in many languages. The officer took each
shirt out of the suitcase, shook it open and read the slogan. She was also very
interested in the books I had in my backpack: books on the US war on Iraq, torture
at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and impeachment, among many others.
She also read every document in my notebooks of events of where I had spoken
and where I am speaking in the near future. She took the DVD documentary film
called "Shut up and Sing" about the run-in of the Dixie Chicks and
the Bush administration and viewed parts of it. Of particular interest to the
officer was the DVD sent to me by the brother of Guantanamo prisoner Omar Deshayes,
a British resident (not citizen) who has been imprisoned by the Bush administration
for five and a half years. Omar's brother and mother had gone with a group of
activists, of which I was a member, to Cuba in January, 2007 to protest the
fifth year of operation of the US prison on the Guantanamo Naval Base. The British
government has finally begun the processing of pressing the Bush administration
for the release of all British residents. After their release to British authorities,
when the British government saw the evidence against the British citizens who
had been imprisoned in Guantanamo, all were released within 24 hours. The British
citizens have been free for over two years.
The immigration officer asked if I knew about Omar Khadr, the only Canadian
citizen imprisoned in Guantanamo. Khadr was imprisoned five and one-half years
ago at age 15. He is charged with throwing a grenade at US soldiers when soldiers
overran the compound where he was living in Afghanistan and killed all of his
relatives in the compound. In June 2007, five and one-half years after his imprisonment,
the US military commission in Guantanamo threw out the charges. The US prosecution
has appealed the decision of the commission. Unlike the British government,
the Canadian government has not pressured the Bush administration to release
Khadr to Canadian authorities so they can review the evidence against Khadr.
I told the officer I certainly hoped the citizens of Canada would pressure the
Canadian government for the release of Khadr. She was silent, but nodded her
head in what appeared to me to be agreement.
After three hours, the immigration officer told me that I because I had a US
"criminal" record and as Canada does not let criminals into the country,
I could be put on the next flight back to the United States. I said I found
that comment quite remarkable and said I believed protests planned at the conference
the three heads of state were attending was the reason for my detention. I told
the officer I was speaking at a press conference and on several panels and my
Canadian hosts would complain strongly if I were not let into Canada.
The officer finally acknowledged that if I paid $200 I could get a three-day,
temporary-resident permit, but in the future, if I wanted to return to Canada,
I would have to apply for another temporary-resident permit at a Canadian embassy.
In the future, I could not cross the Canadian border unless I had a temporary-resident
permit when I arrived at a border crossing - no day trips to Vancouver by just
presenting my passport.
My pleas that all my arrests in the US were misdemeanors and had ended in fines
and no jail time other than during processing following the arrests fell on
deaf ears. No exceptions, if you are listed on the NCIC, you are considered
a "criminal" by Canadian immigration and must get a special permit
for entry. So, I paid the $200. The officer verbally said that I was restricted
to Ottawa and the protests in the town of Montebello across the Ottawa River
in Quebec were off limits to me.
However, when I looked on the official permit that granted me entry into Canada,
no restrictions on travel were listed on it. I have found that many times law
enforcement officers attempt to control others by their statements of what one
can and can not do, where one can or can not stand, statements that are not
based on law, but rather, at best, on the officer's incorrect interpretation
of regulations, or, at worst, their blatant attempt to bully others by merely
the authority of their badge. I decided if the government of Canada was restricting
my travel to Ottawa only, the officer would have had to put the restriction
in writing on the temporary permit. So, the following day, I joined thousands
of protesters in Montebello.
I strongly believe the inclusion on an international criminal database of arrests
of those who disagree with the policies of the Bush administration is meant
to intimidate, silence and impede travel for those who dissent and criticize
the actions of the Bush administration.
Needless to say, I am requesting through the Freedom of Information Act my
"file" from the FBI, and formally protesting the inclusion of my arrests
for peaceful, non-violent actions on an international criminal data base. I
am also demanding these arrests be expunged from international records.
I also am writing to the Canadian government to ask officials to re-evaluate
its decision to accept, at face value, the data it is receiving from the FBI
and the Bush administration.
To other activists who have been arrested, don't be surprised if you are detained
in the future.
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Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army (13 years on active duty and 16 years
in the reserves) and retired as a Colonel. She was a US diplomat for 16 years
and served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Sierra Leone,
Micronesia and Mongolia. She was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy
in Kabul, Afghanistan in December 2001. She was one of three US diplomats who
resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Bush administration's war on Iraq.
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