The Globe and Mail reports that, “An American author and broadcaster (Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now) claims Canadian border officials questioned her about whether she would discuss the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games at a speaking engagement Wednesday evening in Vancouver.”
“Amy Goodman… was entering Canada around 6 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday evening, set to speak at the Vancouver Public Library in an event co-ordinated by a campus radio station at Simon Fraser University.”
“In the country to promote her book Breaking the Sound Barrier , a collection of the award-winning journalist’s columns, she planned to discuss the missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, of which she is a critic; Canadian icon Tommy Douglas, a hero of medicare; global warming; and the worldwide economic meltdown.”
“(Goodman recalled), And (the border guard) said, ‘what about the Olympics? ‘And I said, ‘the Olympics? Do you mean when President Obama went to Copenhagen to try and get the Olympics for Chicago?’ …She claimed the officer persisted in questioning her about Vancouver’s upcoming Games.”
Goodman says, “I said, ‘no, I wasn’t planning to talk about that.’ He just seemed incredulous. They didn’t believe me.”
“They began to search her notes and computers and those of her two colleagues, Ms. Goodman alleged. They then photographed the journalist and gave her a stipulation to leave the country by Friday night. They were delayed over an hour.”
“Ms. Goodman characterized the questioning as an undue attack on the freedom of the press. ‘There’s supposed to be a separation between the state and the press. The fact that the state was going through my documents, that they were rifling through notes, that they were asking me what I was planning to speak about, is a very serious issue,’ she said.“
The full article is at http://theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/us-journalist-says-she-was-delayed-at-border-questioned-about-speech/article1379456/?.
