Chelsea Manning, the Army specialist who served seven years in prison for leaking 7000,000 military files, videos and documents to WikiLeaks, has apparently been denied entry to Canada, according to a letter that she posted on Twitter.
A letter Manning posted on Twitter on September 25th appears to be an official denial of an application to visit Canada. The posted letter states that Manning had attempted to cross the border in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec and has been deemed "inadmissible" because of a Canadian law barring those "having been convicted of an offense outside Canada that, if committed in Canada, would ... [be] punishable by a maximum term of imprisonable of at least 10 years."
"so, i guess canada has permanently banned me ?" Manning tweeted with a series of emojis depicting a Mountie denying her entry to Canada. "@CitImmCanada denied entry b/c of convictions similar to 'treason' offense," she added.
In subsequent tweets, the whistleblower and transgender rights activist wrote that she will challenge the decision on the grounds that laws for which she was convicted were not sufficiently similar to Canadian treason laws.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “not going to comment on any specific case” when asked on Monday about Manning being denied entry into Canada.
