Chelsea Manning Denied Entry into Canada
Former intelligence analyst, convicted of espionage in US, says government identified her as a foreign national 'who has not been authorized to enter Canada' due to prior convictions
Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. intelligence analyst convicted of espionage for passing information to , has been barred from entering Canada. On Monday, Manning posted on Twitter a report from the Canadian government that identified her as a foreign national "who has not been authorized to enter Canada" due to prior convictions. "So, I guess Canada has permanently banned me?" wrote Manning. Manning told Reuters that she tried to enter Canada on Thursday evening, planning to vacation in Montreal and Vancouver. She said she was stopped at the border and detained overnight before being handed a letter stating she was inadmissible "on grounds of serious criminality." The letter said that if the same offense had been carried out in Canada, it "would equate to an indictable offence, namely treason," and could result in up to 14 years in prison. For this reason, Manning was deemed inadmissible to Canada. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents to three years earlier. While in prison, Manning, a 29-year-old transgender woman formerly known as Bradley Manning, fought for and won the right to start hormone treatment. She served seven years before then-president Barack Obama commuted her sentence days before he left office in January.