Thursday, February 11, 2010

Another US Activist Denied Entry to Canada Ahead of Olympics

[This article is from Democracy Now, and although everybody who reads this likely watches Democracy Now anyway, I still have to repost it. I just find it incredible that all the border guards - and the police, military, etc. - play along with the unabashed pocket-lining, so to speak, that will do them personally no good. The mismanagement of resources and the fascistic silencing of dissent, which is absolutely characteristic of Olympic events, hurts everybody. I pray that my favourite goddesses and gods - you know who you are - will take action on this!]

... another US activist has been blocked from entering Canada to cover the Vancouver Winter Olympics. John Weston Osburn of Salt Lake City says he was detained, searched, and denied entry after trying to cross over into Canada.

John Weston Osburn: “I was kind of expecting to get—I was expecting to get kind of shook down, but I wasn’t expecting the type of just—the animosity and just the humiliation. Even though it was only two hours, it was a really unsettling experience, because they made me well aware that I had no rights and that there was no one there to protect me.”

Osburn’s ordeal comes days after Canadian border officials blocked Chicago radio journalist Martin Macias from entering the country because he was planning to spend a week documenting anti-Olympic protests.

Friday, February 05, 2010