Chelsea Manning, a former American soldier jailed for leaking troves of classified information, said on Monday that she was banned from entering Canada due to criminal convictions in the United States.
Manning had tried to cross at the official border office at Lacolle, Quebec, on Friday. On Monday, she posted a letter from Canadian immigration officials to her Twitter account that said she was not admitted because she was convicted of offences deemed equivalent to treason in Canada.
“So, I guess Canada has permanently banned me? Denied entry b/c of convictions similar to “treason” offence,” she wrote.
The document said that Manning had committed a crime outside the country that “would equate to an indictable offence, namely treason” in Canada and which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment.
Committing a crime elsewhere that would carry a maximum sentence of at least 10 years in Canada is grounds for a person to be denied entry, the document said.
My guess is that he knew this. But hey, gotta keep in the headlines, eh?
What I wonder is, why Canada should care in the first place.
Its pretty much logically impossible for Manning to commit treason in Canada – and I’m pretty sure Canada wouldn’t bar, say, a Russian or a North Korean had they been convicted of the same offense and then tried entry.
Treason carries a maximum sentence of only 14 years? That seems a bit low unless there’s degrees of treason. I’m surprised the other five-eyes signatories would want far stiffer deterrents for sharing their secrets.
Chelsea Manning is not a Chelsea and not a “she”. Manning is mentally deranged.
As with Canada turning away illegal immigrants recently, it is nice to see that most of their pious posturing is simply specious morally vacuous status-signally posturing. They do not mean it. Good for them. Now if only they would preach what they practice.
In having his pecker chopped-off Manning did our species a favour.
Manning thinks that it has a right to enter Canada? Whatever happened to national sovereignty?
Not for the first time Americans fleeing Trump’s hellhole find Canada’s laws are an awful lot tougher than those they’re allegedly escaping from.
“Manning thinks that it has a right to enter Canada? Whatever happened to national sovereignty?”
Given what he did he obviously doesn’t believe in national sovereignty.
@TimN
Aah, yes, that magic moment when they arrive in the real, actually-existing Canada and not the imaginary one in their minds and in their propaganda.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall…
Agammamon:
We in Canada care because we already have too many American assholes up here. Plenty of draft dodgers from the Vietnam era, and worse.
Plus, there’s some tit for tat. The Americans bar anyone convicted of a crime involving “moral turpitude”, and under various treaties with the US we share all information on criminal convictions for border crossing purposes. Lots of wealthy Canadian VIPs have tried to cross to the USA and been suddenly reminded of that 30 year old marijuana dealing conviction.
Applies to you foreigners too. A German friend of mine suddenly found out that the Yanks had access to his criminal history and that they consider tax evasion to involve moral turpitude. Back to Frankfurt he went.
Forgot to mention that we’ve been a safe haven for American criminals for a long time, including at least Butch Cassidy and maybe the Sundance kid here in Western Canada and plenty of Mafiosi in the east.
http://www.highrivertimes.com/2005/06/27/sundance-kid-had-roots-with-bar-u
Go watch a few episodes of Border Security to see the myth meet reality with respect to Canadian immigration services.
My guess here is that Ms Manning did not declare the conviction upfront. CBSA have discretion when it comes to foreign convictions, you are more likely to be allowed in if you are up front. Oh and CBSA is typically multi-culturally diverse, so who knows the underlying beliefs of the agent.
I wonder what the media would say if a relative of someone Bradley Manning got killed turned up on his doorstep and shot him in the face? They’d pin it on President Trump, no doubt.