Canada denies entry to Bill Ayers
By Michael J.W. Stickings
From the Toronto Star:
And he's right. He's not a threat, and he should have been let in. (What happened decades ago should be left in the past. Ayers has become a leading education theorist, like him or not, and there's simply no good reason not to let him come to this country. He should have the same rights as any other American citizen.)
But it's hardly a surprise that he wasn't. Many of you may not know this, but our prime minister, Stephen Harper, is a Bush-friendly Republican who would be happy to turn us into Bush's America revisited. At this moment, with the Obama inauguration today, one day after MLK Day, and Harper's right-wing Conservatives still in power up here, I'm actually prouder of America than I am of my own country. (I love Canada, but it's because I love it that I oppose Harper. And it is to the south that I look for inspiration and hope.)
(Based on my own experiences, Canadian border guards aren't all that welcoming to Canadians returning home, either.)
From the Toronto Star:
An American education professor, one of the founders of a radical 1960s group known as the Weather Underground, which was responsible for a number of bombings in the United States in the early 1970s, was turned back at the Canadian border [Sunday] night.
Dr. William Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a leader in educational reform, was scheduled to speak at the Centre for Urban Schooling at University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. But that appearance has now been temporarily cancelled.
"I don't know why I was turned back," Ayers said in an interview this morning from Chicago. "I got off the plane like everyone else and I was asked to come over to the other side. The border guards reviewed some stuff and said I wasn't going to be allowed into Canada. To me it seems quite bureaucratic and not at all interesting... If it were me I would have let me in. I couldn't possibly be a threat to Canada."
And he's right. He's not a threat, and he should have been let in. (What happened decades ago should be left in the past. Ayers has become a leading education theorist, like him or not, and there's simply no good reason not to let him come to this country. He should have the same rights as any other American citizen.)
But it's hardly a surprise that he wasn't. Many of you may not know this, but our prime minister, Stephen Harper, is a Bush-friendly Republican who would be happy to turn us into Bush's America revisited. At this moment, with the Obama inauguration today, one day after MLK Day, and Harper's right-wing Conservatives still in power up here, I'm actually prouder of America than I am of my own country. (I love Canada, but it's because I love it that I oppose Harper. And it is to the south that I look for inspiration and hope.)
(Based on my own experiences, Canadian border guards aren't all that welcoming to Canadians returning home, either.)
Labels: Canada, Stephen Harper, William Ayers
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
10:00 AM
11 Comments:
On what basis do you lecture another country to allow Americans with terrorist connections to enter?
Does anyone doubt or dispute Ayers' membership in the Weather Underground? If so, then Canada rightfully prevented a terrorist from entering their country.
Canada has no obligation to kowtow to US political correctness.
By
Anonymous, at 2:14 PM
On the basis that I'm a Canadian living in Canada. (Which you would have know had you actually read my post in full.)
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 2:18 PM
Interesting.
So in 30 years do you think we should allow Osama Bin Laden to be admitted into Canada?
Or, more interestingly, how about someone like Randall Terry into Canada? Should we allow him in now? In 30 years?
By
Patrick Ross, at 2:20 PM
You're equating Ayers with bin Laden? Really?
Look, no one's saying that Ayers should be given honourary citizenship or the Order of Canada. He just wants to give a speech at OISE, which invited him.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 2:31 PM
So as a Canadian you recommend that Canada allow US felons into Canada?
As a Canadian, I think we have enough problems without importing American political activists with terrorist sympathies.
I'd rather just keep US felons out, regardless of their politics. You can blame this on Harper if you like, but it just makes you look more petty than the Customs people who denied entry to Ayers.
Besides, if Ayers was denied entry, I'd wager that the request came from a US Government supplied blacklist.
Would be nice to have more respectable Canadian bloggers out there that a Canadian can be proud of instead of having to make excuses for them.
By
Anonymous, at 2:43 PM
So then how about Terry Randall? To the best of my knowledge, he's never committed an act of violence against an abortion provider, but he openly associates with people who have done so, and been convicted of it.
Ayers associated with domestic terrorists. Randall associates with domestic terrorists.
Do we allow Terry Randall in the country now? In 30 years? Ever?
I know my answer to this question -- my answer is "never". Now, I want yours.
By
Patrick Ross, at 2:47 PM
Heh. I just noticed I've been getting his name backwards. It's Randall Terry. All the same, we should never allow Randall Terry into this country.
Do you concur?
By
Patrick Ross, at 3:07 PM
It should come as no surprise that I despise Randall Terry. It would depend on the context, I suppose. Who was inviting him, what the purpose of his trip was. But the big difference between the two is that Terry still advocates hatred and violence, whereas Ayers doesn't. What Ayers did happened over three decades ago, the charges against him were dropped by the FBI, and, since then, he has apologized for what he did.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 3:15 PM
Nuh-uh. That doesn't wash.
Bill Ayers has never apologized for what he did. He's unrepentant.
From the September 11, 2001 New York Times:
"I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
(He never could have known what was going to happen on that day, and no one should pretend that he did. This was just a coincidence, but damning comments nonetheless.)
Even if Randall Terry denounced violence tomorrow, I wouldn't allow him into Canada in 30 years, or ever.
By
Patrick Ross, at 3:21 PM
That NYT piece misrepresented him, as he himself has argued.
Time has to be allowed to heal some wounds.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 4:20 PM
Either he said those things to the New York Times, or he didn't. If he successfully sued the NYT for fabricating those quotes, I'm all ears.
Needless to say, there are some wounds that don't heal -- some things you just don't excuse.
What Bill Ayers did is one of them.
But that is largely immaterial. Healing the wounds inflicted by Ayers' actions is for the American people to decide, not the Canadian government.
It's up to the Canadian government to decide whether or not anyone with a history of domestic terrorism should be allowed into the country. The answer to that question should always be "no".
By
Patrick Ross, at 5:23 PM
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