Oh, Canada!

Via Cliff Schechter, Medea Benjamin reports the dispiriting news that Americans arrested for things like trespassing and disorderly conduct during antiwar protests are being turned away at the Canadian border.

This is a horrifying development for human rights. This is a horrifying indication of the moral wasting visited upon the world by an American conservative movement invested with governing power. And, last but not least, this is a sad step backward for Canada's proud history history of refusing to be intimidated by the United States.

In one of the last issues of Lingua Franca, I wrote about a very fine little academic study entitled Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canda, by John Hagan. American officials were outraged when Canadians asserted their sovereign right not to turn back war resisters. But Canada refused to be bullied. Those days, apparently, are over: America says jump; Canada answers, "How high?"

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