Canada Denies Entry to Participant in Event on Cuban Five
Canadian customs officials on Sunday denied the entry of U.S. pacifist Stansfield Smith, who was going to participate in a meeting and people´s court organized in Toronto (southeast) on the case of five Cuban antiterrorist fighters.
According to a message from Smith, to which Prensa Latina had access, Canadian authorities also banned him from entering the country over the next one and a half year, without elaborating on their decision.
The activist said that the guards stopped him on the border checkpoint of Port Huron-Sarnia and interrogated him about the purposes of his visit to Canada.
After responding that he would attend a meeting on Cuba in Toronto and would return to the United States on Monday, he had to park his car and give the same explanation to other customs officials, who took him to an office.
According to Smith, a female official asked him similar questions and refused to verify on the Internet the holding of the assembly and people´s court on the legal case of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, who are known internationally as the Cuban Five.
Finally, they prevented him from entering Canada after they checked his personal data.
The U.S. pacifist wondered why if Canada has relations with Cuba, it is concerned about his participation in the two solidarity meetings, held from Friday until Sunday at the City Hall of Toronto.
Smith is a member of the Chicago Committee for the Release of the Five, and was one of the promoters of the protests against the summits of the G-8 and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in May.
He had planned to join the activists from several countries gathered in Toronto to break the media silence about the Cuban Five, who were sentenced to long prison terms in the United States for monitoring the activities of Miami-based groups, whose violent actions have taken a toll of over 3,400 lives in Cuba over the past 53 years.
Participants in the two meetings will approve an action plan to demand that U.S. President Barack Obama release the Five immediately and unconditionally.
The document will also aim to pressure the Canadian government to join the international call to Obama to use his constitutional faculties to release the Five and send them back home.
According to a message from Smith, to which Prensa Latina had access, Canadian authorities also banned him from entering the country over the next one and a half year, without elaborating on their decision.
The activist said that the guards stopped him on the border checkpoint of Port Huron-Sarnia and interrogated him about the purposes of his visit to Canada.
After responding that he would attend a meeting on Cuba in Toronto and would return to the United States on Monday, he had to park his car and give the same explanation to other customs officials, who took him to an office.
According to Smith, a female official asked him similar questions and refused to verify on the Internet the holding of the assembly and people´s court on the legal case of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, who are known internationally as the Cuban Five.
Finally, they prevented him from entering Canada after they checked his personal data.
The U.S. pacifist wondered why if Canada has relations with Cuba, it is concerned about his participation in the two solidarity meetings, held from Friday until Sunday at the City Hall of Toronto.
Smith is a member of the Chicago Committee for the Release of the Five, and was one of the promoters of the protests against the summits of the G-8 and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in May.
He had planned to join the activists from several countries gathered in Toronto to break the media silence about the Cuban Five, who were sentenced to long prison terms in the United States for monitoring the activities of Miami-based groups, whose violent actions have taken a toll of over 3,400 lives in Cuba over the past 53 years.
Participants in the two meetings will approve an action plan to demand that U.S. President Barack Obama release the Five immediately and unconditionally.
The document will also aim to pressure the Canadian government to join the international call to Obama to use his constitutional faculties to release the Five and send them back home.
Source:
Prensa Latina
Date:
24/09/2012