Canada: We Come in Peace

[unhappycamper]

Canada: We Come in Peace
Medea Benjamin
Posted October 17, 2007 | 09:43 PM (EST)


As a young hippie in the mid '70s hitch-hiking across Europe and Africa, I encountered tremendous hostility towards Americans because of US foreign policy. My government was killing people in Vietnam, supporting the white racists in South Africa, and had just overthrown Salvador Allende's democratic government in Chile. Ashamed, I looked northward and saw the enlightened Canadian government of Pierre Trudeau. When I heard John Lennon say that "if all politicians were like Pierre Trudeau there would be world peace," I was sold. Sight unseen, I adopted Canada as my spiritual homeland. I drew a maple leaf on my backpack, added "eh?" at the end of my sentences, and started calling myself a Canadian.

Over the years, I have reconciled myself to being a U.S. citizen and have dedicated my life to making my government one I can be proud of. But I continue to have a soft spot for Canada. I admire Canada's commitment to health care for all. The government's rational policy towards Cuba allows Canadians to vacation in Varadero while Americans are prohibited from "bathing with the enemy." Peace-loving Americans are forever grateful to Canada for accepting Vietnam war resisters and for spearheading the international treaty against landmines. And when Canada refused to join George Bush's Coalition of the Willing to invade Iraq, the US peace movement showered the Canadian Embassy with flowers and thanks.

While I no long self-identify as Canadian, my ties to Canada are deep. The fair trade organization I cofounded, Global Exchange, has joined Canadian NGOs and labor unions to oppose NAFTA and other trade policies that hurt the poor and the environment. We organize cross-border strategy sessions on how to make businesses greener and more socially responsible. We pressure the auto companies to produce more fuel-efficient cars. We jointly visit factories from Mexico to China to improve conditions for workers making goods sold in our stores.

When I cofounded the women's peace group CODEPINK to prevent war with Iraq, we were honored to have Canadian parliamentarians stand with us in front of the White House during our four-month vigil. After the invasion, we joined with Canadians to set up an Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad. And with more and more US soldiers from Iraq seeking refuge in Canada, we work with Canadians to support this new wave of war resisters.

It's not just war resisters making a beeline north. Some of our best peace activists, beaten down by the Bush administration, have immigrated to Canada. Others of us, determined to stay and struggle on our home turf, keep in the back of our minds that if the situation in the U.S. gets really bad, Canada will be our "exit strategy."

But my whole idea of a tolerant, independent Canada that we could retreat to came crashing down on October 4. With my colleague Ann Wright, a retired US Army Colonel and career diplomat who resigned in opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, I was going to Toronto to meet with the Stop the War Coalition. We crossed the border at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. While most U.S. visitors are simply waved through with no screening, Ann and I were selected for a background check.

Rest of article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/canada-we-come-in-peace_b_68926.html

[Stuckinthebush]

1. Whoa.

This should give us all pause.

The ramifications of this new Canadian use of the FBI database to disallow visitors are major.

Say you are a political activist who regularly speaks up against an administration. Say that you have no arrests in your record, but you are a menace to a bad administration. Say also that you are a well known author or speaker who travels a great deal to discuss the evils of your country via the current administration. To keep you quiet and to diminish your influence, all an administration would have to do is to invent some stuff on the NCIC database. BAM! You are now a prisoner in your own country.

Say you are a quiet citizen of the US but had a misdemeanor in your past (bar fight - disorderly conduct - etc.). You are now stuck in your country forever.

Lovely.

[Lasher]

2. Yep, that was pretty profound to me.

We're talking misdemeanors here. How does a bar fight 20 years ago make you a terrorist?

Edit: I wonder if President Cheney and Junior will be allowed in Canada? They both have DUI convictions. Cheney has two.

[Xipe Totec]

3. K&R

This belongs on the front page of DU.

[applegrove]

4. Canada's "New Government", as they call themselves and insist everyone else does in an Orwellian

fashion, likes to play the games the *WH did. They love to box the opposition in. It makes me sick.