Peace activist denied entry into Canada -- 1 of 755,000 on "Terror Watch List", says GAO

One of our readers tipped us to this piece at CommonDreams.org.

It seems that Ann Wright, a New York peace activist who was invited by six members of the Canadian Parliament to serve as a panelist at event titled “Peacebuilders Without Borders: Challenging the Post-0/11 Canada-US Security Agenda,” was denied entry into Canada on two separate occasions because:

we had been convicted in the United States of peaceful, non-violent protests against the war on Iraq, including sitting on the sidewalk in front of the White House with 400 others, speaking out against torture during Congressional hearings, and other misdemeanors. The Canadian government knew of these offenses as they now have access to the FBI’s National Crime Information database on which we are listed. The database that was created to identify members of violent gangs and terrorist organizations, foreign fugitives, patrol violators and sex offenders-not for peace activists peacefully protesting illegal actions of their government.

The full article is well worth the read. There are now several countries, aligned with the Bush administration, that have similar policies.

It's also worth mentioning that the Bush administration's "Terror Watch List", has reached 755,000 or 1 in every 250 American adults, according to the GAO.