Previous Politech message: U.S. Customs bars Canadian activist from crossing border http://www.politechbot.com/p-03177.html --- Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 05:33:49 -0800 From: Reg Whitaker <regwhitat_private> Subject: Re: FC: U.S. Customs bars Canadian activist from crossing border To: declanat_private Declan: This story about John Clarke being detained at the US border is hardly surprising. Clarke's group OCAP is well-known in Toronto and Ontario as an aggressive and confrontational activist group involved in numerous violent confrontations with police. Of course, how one assesses OCAP is a matter of one's own politics. Suffice to make two points here. First, when Clarke casually refers to an OCAP action being attacked by the police, this is a somewhat dubious interpretation: OCAP is known to seek out confrontation and in some instances to have initiated violence. Certainly it engages in provocations calculated to bring on police responses. Second, even to many on the Left and among activists in social movements and anti-globalization demonstrations, OCAP is highly controversial, its tactics a matter of hot debate. In this context, and bearing in mind that Clarke himself has spent long periods in recent years in detention awaiting charges arising out of specific incidents, it is hardly surprising that he is on a border watch list in the aftermath of 911. Whatever one thinks of the kind of controls being exercised by the INS these days, it does not seem to me to be a matter of any great moment, or a cause of special attention, that someone like Clarke is recognized and impeded from entry to the US. This is surely just business as usual. I would add that Clarke was no doubt fully aware of this, and wants to make a big issue of it. Here in Canada we have seen this kind of thing by him quite often. Reg Whitaker Victoria BC --- From: "Newbury" <newburyat_private> To: "declanat_private" <declanat_private> Date: Mon, 25 Feb 02 10:56:45 -0500 Subject: Re: FC: U.S. Customs bars Canadian activist from crossing border On Mon, 25 Feb 2002 02:10:30 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote: >Declan, > >I thought this was an interesting tidbit on how the U.S. government appears >to be targeting anti-globalization activists (in and outside of the U.S.) >in the fight against terrorism... the bit about Osama Bin Laden is >especially weird, but the whole scenario is astonishing - that significant >resources are being spent on tracking the actions of a local Canadian >anti-poverty group just astounds me. The fact that an agent with >specialized knowledge about this group was able to appear within 90 >minutes, implies that he was posted near the border, and on call. Mr. Clarke seems to have down-played the violence which occurred at the protests. If memory serves, he has been charged with quite serious criminal offences arising not only out of that event but also another event where an MPP's office was trashed. I thought that he had been convicted, but that may not be the case: if he was convicted, then he could be barred from entry on that basis alone. Mr. Singh has been convicted of some crimes arising from 'protests' and placed on probation. He was arrested in Quebec City and charged with doing things which were a breach of his probation. (protesters were thowing stuffed 'teddy bears' at police: he was charged with something like 'having a weapon'!!!) No wonder the US is concerned about these guys. In my opinion, Clarke is a socialist wing-nut. Geoff Newbury --- From: "Geoff Gariepy" <geoff_gariepyat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Re: U.S. Customs bars Canadian activist from crossing border Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 07:32:51 -0500 I live in the general vicinity of this border crossing. I don't visit Canada because it exposes you to the risk of being treated like this. Such stories are not unheard of. On the other hand, the border crossing guards generally rely on what you say to them in determining how to treat you. This guy kind of dug his own grave. --Geoff --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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