Two well-known US activists were stopped by Canadian Immigration Sunday as they tried to enter Ottawa. Starhawk and Lisa Fifthian flew into Canada Sunday night prepared to give non-violent civil-disobedience and direct-action trainings for the upcoming protests against globalization in Ottawa. Ottawa invited the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to meet there this week when their scheduled summit in Washington, DC was cancelled after the September 11 attacks.
After five hours of questioning, Fifthian was ordered to leave Canada, or face arrest. She refused to leave and was arrested Monday. Immigration authorities also seized Starhawk’s computer and sent it to Canadian intelligence for examination.
Starhawk reports:
"On Monday, November 12th, Lisa Fithian and I were travelling together to Ottawa when I was flagged by Immigration for a more extensive screening. We had both been invited by OPIRG (The Ontario Public Interest Research Group) to offer trainings on activism in preparation for upcoming demonstrations against the G20, the IMF and the World Bank which are meeting in Ottawa November 16-19.....
[ MORE OF STARHAWK'S REPORT | full story | update ]
