Antiwar activists clear border

Diane Wilson, an antiwar activist from Texas, drove over the U.S. border south of Vancouver on Sunday just to see if she could.

Whether or not U.S. antiwar activists are allowed into Canada was key to Sunday's Our Way Home Vancouver Peace Conference at Simon Fraser University's Harbour Centre.

Wilson was part of a convoy on-hand to support two of the event's participants.

The keynote speaker, retired U.S. colonel Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department over the invasion of Iraq, and Medea Benjamin, another leading U.S. political activist, were not expected to make it across the border.

Both were denied entry to Canada last year, with Canadian authorities claiming they are named on a FBI watch list due to misdemeanor convictions stemming from participation in antiwar demonstrations.

But after more than two hours of Canadian questioning at the border crossing at Blaine, the pair arrived at the conference.

NDP MP Libby Davies, who was part of a group of supporters who drove across the border in a van with Wright and Benjamin, said she sat through the questioning.

"I don't think I've ever had to do quite so much to welcome people to the city of Vancouver," said Davies, adding that such treatment of two leading U.S. peace activists raises questions about the government's security provisions. "These are two individuals that pose absolutely no security risk to our country. They are here as peace activists."

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