This, to me, is very, very chilling:

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Two high-profile American peace activists on Thursday accused the Canadian government of denying them entry into Canada solely because of past arrests in the U.S. for peaceful protests against the war in Iraq.

Medea Benjamin, founder of the women's peace movement CodePink, and former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright were detained for several hours by Canadian authorities at the border crossing between Buffalo, N.Y. and Niagara Falls, Ont., then turned back because their names appeared on an FBI database detailing their misdemeanour convictions.

"We believe the Canadian government should not be doing the dirty political intimidation work for the Bush administration by using that database," Wright, a former U.S. army colonel and deputy ambassador, said at a news conference outside the Canadian embassy in Washington.

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So that means if I get arrested for 'peaceful' protests of the Bush regime I can kiss any chance of another Toronto weekend goodbye.

Un-freaking-believable.

I thought this was telling:

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The peace activists met Thursday afternoon with immigration officials at the Canadian embassy in Washington. The women were informed they could not enter Canada until they completed a lengthy application detailing their "criminal rehabilitation."

Benjamin said Canadian border agents were "almost apologetic" for denying the women entry, allegedly saying it was policy to turn away anyone on the NCIC database.

"I travel all over the world on a regular basis. I have never had this kind of problem," said Benjamin. "Canada is the first country, to our knowledge, that is using this beefed-up database of the FBI as its criteria for judging who enters. It's why we consider this so outrageous and so dangerous."

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Originally posted by N.Beltov:
[QB]Ms. Benjamin was interviewed on the CBC's As It Happens. Apparently, she was charged with "tresspass" when she tried to deliver a petition, paid a fine, and has recently discovered that she needs to be "rehabilitated". QB]

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