P U L S E

Amy Goodman in this 15-minute interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Channel describes how for over 90 minutes she was detained and interrogated about the nature of her talk at the Vancouver Public Library on November 25th. A long time journalist, activist, and host of the popular Democracy Now!, Goodman was coming to Canada as part of a tour to promote her new book, Breaking The Sound Barrier. Canadian border agents searched her personal possessions, including her laptop and notes, apparently interested in whether she would be talking about the upcoming 2010 Olympics, which are set to be hosted in Vancouver, BC. She was given a 48 hour temporary visa and told to leave Canada promptly — all this without any legal rationale.

Canadians should be ashamed of the Canada Border Services Agency and its increasingly fascistic policies. Much like the former government of George W. Bush, our fanatic conservative government seems to have interpreted 1984 by George Orwell not as a dystopian future, but rather as a how-to manual. The recent detainment and interrogation of Amy Goodman is completely unacceptable, but not unique. Perhaps we Canadians should give our government a high five, or a pat on the back because they at least allowed Goodman into the country this time. Unfortunately, long time UK MP and pro-peace activist George Galloway was not allowed into Canada earlier this year due to his vocal views about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

It seems Goodman’s pro-peace and pro-justice views were not the main cause of fear this time.  Indeed, she was interrogated in the name of protecting the Olympics. As mentioned in the interview above, the line of questioning which was used on her implies that the government feared that Goodman would be expressing views against the event. This is in the context of recent policies which include buying “sonic guns” that could be used to disperse protesters, a law to forcefully put homeless people into shelters based on weather conditions, and fines of up to $10,000 a day and jail for six months for anti-Olympics signage on private property in Vancouver.

This case, especially when viewed alongside the Galloway event, demonstrates the type of policies that the Canadian government has implemented with the hope of controlling what visitors to Canada are allowed to say out loud. As Canadians it is our duty to actively oppose such blatant violations of free speech and fight for our right to hear views from dissenting voices. We should also avoid letting the Harper government know how effective they are in creating the exact opposite result from what they intended by censoring people like Goodman or Galloway. Who can deny that they’ve multiplied audiences ten-fold? I personally didn’t even known Goodman was coming until this fiasco.