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US Journalist , Amy Goodman, Grilled at Canada Border Crossing
Officials demanded to know what she would say publicly about 2010 Olympics
U.S. journalist Amy Goodman was stopped at a Canadian border crossing south of Vancouver on Wednesday and questioned for 90 minutes by authorities concerned she was coming to Canada to speak against the Olympics.
U.S. broadcaster and author Amy Goodman said she is concerned a journalist would have to undergo an interrogation while trying to enter Canada. (CBC) Goodman says Canadian Border Services Agency officials ultimately allowed her to enter Canada but returned her passport with a document demanding she leave the country within 48 hours.
Goodman, 52, known for her views opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, told CBC News on Thursday that Canadian border agents asked her repeatedly what subjects she would cover at scheduled speaking engagements in Vancouver and Victoria.
'You're saying you're not talking about the Olympics?' - Canadian border agent
Goodman said she told them she planned to speak about the debate over U.S. health care reform and the wars in Asia.
After much questioning, Goodman said the officials finally asked if she would be speaking about the 2010 Olympics.
"He made it clear by saying, 'What about the Olympics?'" said Goodman. "And I said, 'You mean when President Obama went to Copenhagen to push for the Olympics in Chicago?'"
"He said, 'No. I am talking about the Olympics here in 2010.' I said, 'Oh I hadn't thought of that,'" said Goodman.
"He said, 'You're saying you're not talking about the Olympics?'"
"He was clearly incredulous that I wasn't going to be talking about the Olympics. He didn't believe me," Goodman said.
The CBSA declined comment on the incident Thursday.
Searched car, computer and notes
Goodman said her car was searched and the officials demanded to look at her notes and her computer.
Goodman is best known as the principal host of Democracy Now, a U.S. syndicated radio broadcast.
She was coming to Canada as part of a tour to promote a new book, Breaking The Sound Barrier.
"I am deeply concerned that as a journalist I would be flagged and that the concern - the major concern - was the content of my speech," said Goodman.
119 Comments so far
Show AllAmy is a threat to the War Machine.
They probably made a copy of her hard drive and notes.
My Grandma was grilled the same in the early 50's on a family trip to Canada.
The Olympics are a cancer on any locality that hosts them. Weren't they supposed to be some sort of display of friendly competition? Now they are an excuse for profiteering, ugly displays of corporate elitism and overconsumption, and Gestapo-like security zones.
Atlanta used to be a livable city before being awarded the 1996 Olympics. That goddamned event ruined life here.
q
You know what would be really cool? If we on the left, who created the world social forum, created our own international sporting event - a counter olympics, if you will. I'd watch that. As for the 4 week long Visa and McDonald commercial that is the modern Olympics, who cares?
Of course the alter-society will have its alter-olympics.
Wonderful Idea, a humane, non-commercial olympics.
I hope someone will get to work on it right away. Of course they would never let us use the copyrighted name "olympics," any more than they allowed "gay olympics," but so what. "World Games" would do just fine. Go for it. We need a counter culture in every area of life.
The Olympics reflect the world. Is that so strange?
The Olympics are nothing if not political theatre - you see it in China, Korea, in those performances using 10's of thousands of identically dressed, underfed, blank-faced participants. Nuremberg rallies for the modern man.
The capitalist "genius" in the Olympics is that it makes a fortune for the wealthy class.
The advertising campaign for the 2010 Olympics consists of young athletes affirming their "belief" (in what is not clear) and turning to ask the viewer "Do you believe?" again, in what, is not clear - just sort of a general faith in - - what? Weird religion!
I'll be happy when they're finally done and gone, and have taken their undefined "belief" off the media.
Sorry, Amy - Canada used to be a nice place to visit. I'm afraid it's suffering from the toxic effects of the political sewage that's spilling over the border. Our security agencies are picking up the American-style of total hostility toward the citizen and rejection of his right to hold a personal view on any subject. It's happened before, to George Galloway, because he said something critical about Israel.
And I have to tell you, I don't even want to visit in the US anymore. The last time my husband and I tried that, we were confronted by some pathetic little bozo with a grade 10 education / minimum wage, and a fancy uniform emblazoned with showy patches, that made him feel grown up and powerful - we failed to hang our heads and look ashamed, foolishly expecting to be looked in the eye and treated with respect. Little power-tripping pisher, he was.
Nice to see the 2010 Gamestapo hard at work.
They have passed a law recently allowing them to round up the homeless and take them out of town to what I can only call re-education camps, or arrest them if they resist.
This is the government that closed the mental health hospital and turned them out on the street in the first place, and has been happy to leave them on the street for years.
Also they can now come into your house without notice or permission, and remove any protest signs in your windows critizing the games...and they have the now ubiquitous "free speach zones"..located miles from any sports venue.
YOU may only be able to call them re-education camps, but the situation is very different, as even the most superficial of searches can attest. Read:
http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/2009/09/21/olympic-homeless-roundup-not-likely/
Don't go off the deep end quite yet.
As far as closing mental hospitals, that situation was initiated by the US during the Reagan era. Thanks, Ronnie. And the UK. Thanks, Margie. The rest of the English-speaking world followed suit when your toxic bilge started oozing across the border. (globalization, NAFTA, the new corporate paradigm infesting everything, bottom-linery, Margaret Thatcher's "TINA", crap concerns about "world-class" this and "world-class" that, IMF, WTO, etc. The increase in homeless occurred in all countries that got on that band-wagon, even in Europe, though less so there because they have a better social safety net than Canada.
And Canada has a better social safety net than the US. (So I wonder why we have homeless at all - we have welfare here.)
And as for home searches without warrants and "free-speech zones" - Canadians can thank you American chronic incurable paranoiacs for those. Thanks, BTW. And our air-head of a prime minister, who in his desire to play with his big pals in the US, has sold what used to be a really nice (if boring) place to the devil.
We were proud of our "boring" history and of our pretty scenery, and of the general politeness of civic interactions. No, even we have not achieved perfection, but we used to be closer before you yahoos came in here and ripped the place up.
I like Americans - at least, the ones I've met have been very nice. I even married one. He's Canadian now and happy about it. The job situation is not good - see above - but he's glad he's here. Job or no job, he won't have to live on the street, and he'll have health care for the rest of his life...unless American economic imperialism screws that up for us too.
I don't mind your being critical of things that deserve it, and there's lots of those here. But it ticks me off that you are so ignorant on the topics you picked. Since you're so misinformed/ill-informed, you really can have no beef against Canada on those topics - so I wonder what your beef really is. (That was rhetorical.)
I had thought better of Canada than that. Our disease must be contagious.
There's more to Canada than maple syrup and comedians. We have a nation state which behaves... well, like a nation state. It might not be as egregious as some states, but it's still a state.
I'm afraid you are right. I even read that France was considering US style health care. Is the whole world going insane?
That's just talk. If they tried to act on it, the people would tie them to the railroad tracks.
Yes, they know what to do in France with fascists.
It already went.
Can't you hear Kafka laughing? (not that he was exactly the jolly type)
the fact that they were so concerned with the olympics is interesting. almost as if they showed their cards in a flustered moment of over-reaction. what could Amy possibly say to crowds of people about the olympics that could have the canadians so on the defensive.
Well, first of all, how are the French being treated lately? Canada has a tradition of making French Canadians into second class citizens. And how about the Indians? Canada has always treated their native populations shoddily. And is Canada still assuming the "fuck me" position with the United States? As I said in another comment, I lived in Canada for a year, and I have no illusions about Canada or Canadians. That being said, they have a marvelous health system, and they do tend to treat each other with more courtesy than their American counterparts. Not having had a revolution does make a difference.
Not having had SLAVERY is the real difference
Yes, I didn't mention slavery. Canada has escaped that scourge and that's a huge reason why Canada is so much better off than the US. When I was in a provencal High School in Alberta, the teacher of Canadian History was rightly proud of that fact. Of course, he failed to dwell upon the treatment of the French or Native peoples by English Canadians.
We did have a revolution.
It was the Riel Rebellion.
The Metis leader Louis Riel sought freedom and sovereign territory for the Metis and Native peoples of the Republic of Manitoba, as accorded to them in numerous treaties which the Government routinely violated.
The Canadian government, backed by England, crushed the rebellion, and Riel was hung after a trumped up trial.
Less than ten years ago, the Canadian Government finally apologized to Riel's descendants for the legalized murder of their ancestor.
I was of course thinking about a revolution against England, the country that seized power from the French and Eastern Native Americans. The Riel Rebellion was a reaction by Native peoples to broken treaties and mistreatment.
I'm surprised that drugs were not planted and she's not under arrest. Or is that the U.S. side of the border?
Canada is changing I see!!!
Becoming more like what the U.S. Constitution tried to prevent.
I don't know which country has more restrictions after reading this article.
I think all countries are going this paranoid direction.
SELL THAT FEAR!
This is petty appalling, if Canada were a free country, she could have simply told them that the subject of her speaking engagements is absolutely none of their fucking business.
The Thursday and Friday DN programs were pre-recorded for the Thanksgiving holiday. Hopefully he will hear her thoughts on it on Monday, when she will be in Copenhagen, or maybe IF she gets into Copenhagen.
Heads had better roll at the CBSA.
This is the sort of thing you expected of Joseph Stalin, not Canada.
Amy Goodman is a brave.
Amy Goodman is a "good man".
Amy Goodman is "good, man..."
amy, if you'd just been a fox news girl with the tinted hair, push up bra, short skirt, pepsodent smile, and flirtatious attitude, you would have had a mountie escort you all over british columbia. what in the hell is going on in canada, anyway? would this sort of thing have happened in any of its eastern provinces? is vancouver a "red" province, where they don't like liberals? please, someone from canada, help us understand all this!
What happened is she was met with government officials with a modicum of enforcement power that went to their heads - precisely the sort of job that attracts right-wingers. As for BC, it is by no means the equivalent of a red state. It's closer to a pink state, were such states to exist in the U.S.
It's funny that she will be talking about the Olympics and the Canadian Border Services Agency now. They should have kept their mouths shut. (Hey little right-winger, shoot that foot of yours. Good boy.)
Actually, in Canada, they use the internationally recognized associations of the color red with the political left (the Liberals, or orange for the NDP) and blue with the political right (Tories).
I have always found it peculiar that the US media backwardly associates the color red with the Republican Party and blue with the Democrats. Whether it is ignorance, the US custom of obstinate contrariness, or deeper, more diabolical psycho-social reason, is a good question.
They stole our colors and our flag.
Red is a warm color and therefore is the most effective in advertising and catches the eye... politics is about that.
Good point. - I've always taken the US red/blue switch as a deliberate ploy to confuse the issue worldwide - "divide and conquer" - so people in the US don't understand the politics of the rest of the world, and the rest of the world doesn't get US politics.
From www.uselectionatlas.org, the author said that until the recent decades, the US associated red with Democrats and blue with Republicans. It is rather ironic that the same Republicans who loudly detest communism associate themselves with their color red.
A bit of flash and splash, perfume that is, and tint in the hair, like a Fox girl, would have gotten her right through. No doubt about that.
Hhhuuummmmmmmmmmm. Concerned a JOURNALIST would be questioned while entering Canada?
Hi Amy,
I pray this message finds you in good health and spirits. I just want you to know that back during the convention in Chicago (was it Chicago?), we had heard here in KMUD.org land that you were being "detained" I was heading for the truck with my pitchfork. Not only myself, but every person I talked too was ready to go and do some damage; if that's what it took to 'Free Amy!' I was with you during that whole Pacifica mess. I was with you for three days in the firehouse when you stayed behind on 9/11. You became of beacon of light for me during the darkest period of our history. I think you are one of the greatest Americans since Mark Twain. If they really want to start a revolution, all they have to do is start messing with Amy.
Ugly Olympics! Hype, money, and doping.
It appears that the Canada of today is not going to be confused any time soon with the Canada that was governed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and which back then provided a safe haven for Americans who had fled to Canada during the Vietnam conflict.
The really comical thing is that it appears that Amy Goodman, with all the other important news items to cover, apparently didn't even know the Winter Olympics were being held there, much less the controversy surrounding them. But, I bet she know now. I hope to hear a report about them soon.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
This wasn't about the Olympics. They wanted a look at her computer--long enough to make a data mirror of her hard drive that could be fed back to the U.S. DHS via Echelon. It would be tougher for U.S. officials to seize her computer without a major lawsuit. The Canadians easily seized her computer at the border. That's how Echelon between the US and British Commonwealth works. They spy for us: We spy for them. Goodman speaks out fearlessly about several issues nationally and globally that are highly sensitive as far as the oligarchs (and their surveillance spooks & pigs) running the New World Order are concerned.
The next time, she should back up all her data to a removable thumb drive that she will be using, back up the rest to a removable hard drive and keep it airtight secure, and not allow her own computer to have information that can be used against her. That way, when she has to hand over her computer, the Canadian government can't take a copy of her stuff. That's one of my lifetime lessons I learned working as a contractor for various departments and agencies in government.
Actually, I worry a lot less about ideological viewpoints on my computer on my US government jobs than I did in private industry. Unlike private industry, the US government cannot fire a civil service employee for their political views. Only partisan electoral activity is prohibited. Also, because government workplaces are public property, the First Amendment still applies.
pjd412, you're right again. I worked in the public sector for years(along with some grind jobs in the private sector; in junior high school(8 yrs) partime college teaching(1&1/2 yrs), child protective services(12yrs),& aging services (15 yrs).
I could never get promoted, nor could I get a partime job after retirement; but, through those years I was able to be myself, while raising 3 beautiful children, w/many letters-to-the editor, continual participation in demonstrations mostly in my home town, but many in Ithaca and Syracuse, & DC in'69, and participation in the counterculture like smokin pot in public places, and still keep my jobs.
Of course, this is just another atrocious effect of privatization. Real freedom, liberty, &, oh yeah, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (& of course, women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unnalienable rights, that among these are Life (there goes capital punishment), Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
I could see a lot of benefits of working public sector too but I fell sucker to working private sector and fighting too hard for better. I'm glad you were able to make the best of what was given to you. When you're in the private sector, the system is so screwed that you'll want to rise higher and faster and then you get put under constant stress, pressure, and higher expectations. I won't say that all federal employees are the same though. Some are hardworking while others take their positions for granted.
If I had been a public employee instead of falling sucker to the private sector, I would have never sharpened my skills on erasing data very skillfully. In all of my jobs in the private sector, not once have I gotten questioned or fired but that's probably due to my mixed views and not being hooked to one ideology.
I wonder about the Canadian gov't though. Do they fire public employees for their ideological view points?
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
..."and not allow her own computer to have information that can be used against her."
Aye, there's the rub: No one knows what Canada and, especially, the U.S. use as specific criterion regarding the designation of someone as a terrorist, or someone's computer information as terroristic. The FBI recently busted an activist (after raiding his home and seizing his computer) related to the G20 protests for using Twitter to warn street activists where the cops were moving in the streets in relation to the activists' physical locations. There is no existing law pertaining to this. The FBI is making it up as they go along and throwing whatever they can into the courts to try to find right-wing activist judges whose rulings will help create new types of "terrorism" they can prosecute.
The U.S. is still living under a form of martial law. The Unitary Theory of Executive Power, it's Constitutionality and possible abuses under Team Bush have never been investigated or prosecuted and it is still a method of government that present and future Executive Branches may avail themselves of until or unless it is outlawed. Neither Bush II nor Obama have stated their post-9/11 presidential definitions for what constitutes terrorism.
The Patriot Acts, the elimination of Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus, and the Executive Branch re-definition of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions have just shot-gunned more holes into pre-existing legal concepts of terrorism--whether it is State terror or otherwise.
Look at what they did to U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. The original charges against him vanished with no explanation. What REAL evidence was there against this guy? It all smelled pretty fishy to me. They drove this U.S. citizen insane with torture according to one psychologist who interviewed him. His own family could barely recognize him in court. Many of these cases will be tried by military tribunals and much of the testimony will remain secret for the grey umbrella purposes of alleged national security--alleged because no jury of peers will ever see the secret evidence used against these people.
This is Kafka-esque Police State totalitarianism by degree, and the mission creep of the "War on Terror" is already coming home to the U.S. with a vengeance. The longer this stuff goes on and the U.S. military/petrol industrial complex and our increasingly militarized federal, State and local police operate to varying degrees in the lawless manner allowed by the above-mentioned legalistic conditions, the deeper the U.S. will drift into totalitarianism. We are already half-way down the slippery slope here.
I totally agree with your statements of the dangers of the Pat Act. It is like a nightmare.
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/breakdown-hr-3845-usa-patriot-amendments-act-2009
is the latest resolution on the ACLU's web page regarding the Reauthorization that is being proposed prior to the 12/31/09 sunset of the Act. There is still some time to try to persuade our reps to gut this Act or let it sunset. (not likely, I know)
The Military Commissions Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 also contain gross violations of the Constitution. Sure is "slippy" around here!
What's the latest on the Twitter Guy? Has he been "extraodinarily rendered"?
Good. I guess harassment works both ways. Canadian border agents probably learned that from their US counterparts. Taste of your own medicine....
I'll bet you'll change your mind when you get similar treatment and I'm sure God will see to it.
"Good. I guess harassment works both ways. Canadian border agents probably learned that from their US counterparts. Taste of your own medicine...."
Yes, because inflicting that treatment on the average citizen who is criticizing her own government's fascist policies anyway makes complete sense.