Bill Ayers Refused Entry To Canada

An American education professor, one of the founders of a radical 1960s group known as the Weather Underground, which was responsible for a number of bombings in the United States in the early 1970s, was turned back at the Canadian border last night.

Dr. William Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a leader in educational reform, was scheduled to speak at the Centre for Urban Schooling at University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. But that appearance has now been temporarily cancelled.

"I don't know why I was turned back," Ayers said in an interview this morning from Chicago.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[SamCrisc]

Thanks to Canada Ayers, 'the Great Educator that has been denied free speech because of his radical past', is now a martyr.

Moreover the ensuing discussion poses as extremes of the debate either the defence of or the opposition to Ayers as 'the former anti-war activist who is`the representative of the militant Left'. This is an outrage.

Ayers has nothing to say about education other than some new age platitudes, a fact that he won't need to expose by speaking.

Ayers was not and is not the representative of the anti-war/civil rights movement of the '60, but its destroyer. He was not and is not the paladin of "human potential", but a vicious provocateur whose target was and is ordinary working people.

Both positions (defense of/opposition to 'Bill, the Leftist, activist par excellence') constitute a terrible attack on the Left itself, because they both identify the Left with terror (e.g., bombings as 'militant' anti-war protest, not to speak of the Weathermen's robbery-murders).

Jared Israel, one of Ayers' main opponents in SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), has written several articles about Ayers, unmasking his lies, showing that Ayers was a terrorist then and is now continuing his destructive work, conveniently hyped by the media. See "A Nightmare of Human Potential. Reply to Bill Ayers' New York Times Editorial" at http://www.tenc.net/realbill.htm and the series "The Weathermen Redeemed" at http//www.tenc.net/ehxumed.htm

[Whinger]

Canadian overreaction, human beings behaving like machines!

[swo68]

I know! You think they would welcome someone who committed acts of terrorism with open arms!

[Tom95134]

"I don't know why I was turned back," Ayers said.

Well, most likely it was because Ayers had been designated a "person of interest" in the Department of Homeland Security's computer system. Anyone in the U.S. who has had a little as a drunk driving arrest can find themselves denied entry to Canada because Canadian Immigration now has access to the DHS database of "Bad People" and makes many entry decisions based on that information.

BTW, DHS makes its listings available to many countries so, while as an American citizen, you may be able to easily travel outside the U.S. you may not be welcome in the country of your destination. Just think of it as a gift from Bush.

[swo68]

DUI... acts of terrorism... same same.

[AnnfromCA]

Guess they didn't buy his rewrite of history.

[Palemoon]

Ladyrantsalot,
"Violent protests and the whole counter-cultural movement disgusted working class people and drove them to vote for Nixon."

I wanted to expand upon this quote further. As I said, the Weather Underground didn't exist until 1969, after Nixon was elected. Infamous Altamont concert in which the Hell's Angels killed a man happened in 1969, after Nixon was elected.

4 students shot dead at Kent State by our National Guard, May 1970, after Nixon was President. Woodstock took place in 1969. There's more to be sure, but to give your point of view some credit, the "Summer of Love" was 1967, Haight-Ashbury rose to fame around 1967 along with citizenry referred to as "Hippies", also the Monterrey Pop Festival. There was some stuff going on prior to the 1968 election to be sure, but the mostly violet stuff started happening in mid-1968.

I see 1 big thing that really turned into Nixon's advantage. The Tet Offensive. That one thing during 1968 told the American public that the Vietnam War was neither easily winnable, nor would it be over anytime soon. It was a major dose of reality for supporters and politicians back home. People were already fed up and frustrated, and with the Democrats having been in power 7+ years at that point, the backlash was against those in power. I think the counterculture movement actually put Nixon into power based on his promise to end the war by the end of his first term.

[kelleyajones]

O Canada, I think you're a little confused on this.

[popfolly]

OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) wasn't but know-nothings who voted for people like Harris and Harper, were.

[BlackYowe]

-Spoiled rich kid who wanted to play. Good for Canada. The actions we do even in our youth do matter.

[Monn]

Canada has very tight border policies now to block terrorists. The American government kept pushing ours to tighten it up more out of worry somebody might come through us to you. There is no reason to think that Stephen Harper was tracking Ayers and and trying to mess with him in some sort of solidarity gesture to the Republicans. All the negative publicity and attention during the election would have made him more recognizable and suspect to border guards, but it's highly unlikely it's political action. What would be the point anyway? Our administration has to make friendly with Obama because he's about to head the administration of our greatest trading partner for 4 years.

[MsCanadian]

This is really stupid! He was going to give a talk at the university not bomb Toronto, and they should have let him in. However, then the US would probably complain that Canada lets "terrorists" cross their border.

You just can't win!

[GeorgeKaplan]

I still do not understand how blowing up "empty buildings" would have ended the Vietnam war.

[Yermammy]

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."
That axiom is as old as time. He got the worlds attention.
Mission Accomplished (really).

[GeorgeKaplan]

Oswald got the worlds attention.

[JulieKay]

I recommend reading an article Bill Ayers posted on January 2, 2009, which was very well received by the individuals posting comments.

Obama and Education Reform

There were the typical anti-Ayers comments. More importantly, there was a positive discussion on education.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-ayers/obama-and-education-refor_b_154857.html?page=4

[pupbayer]

LOL!!!! Yes, VERY enlighteni­ng...let's see...we test too much and don't use the results correctly...we need to put more money into education...all children deserve a quality education....yes, he is a real reformer with extraordinary insight! LOL!!!!

[Right-turn]

Poor beloved Bill Ayres........I weep for the man. 'If the bomb don't fit, you must acquit"

"Guilty as hell, free as a bird" except in Canada.

[jsgaetano]

I look forward to hearing all the Ayers bashers also supporting the prosecution of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, etc etc.

[swo68]

Reid, Pelosi...

[Ladyrantsalot]

I can't stand this guy. He is arrogant. He actually reminds me of a lefty W: a richy rich who refuses to confront the fundamental immorality of his political actions. There was only one reason no one died in the bombings he participated in: pure luck. One bomb he set off in Chicago blew debris onto the Kennedy Expressway. He set off bombs in densely populated areas in Chicago and New York. He didn't just bomb the Pentagon, he bombed the US capitol. I firmly believe that violent jerks like Ayers actually prolonged the Vietnam War because they helped to discredit the antiwar movement. Even today, some progressive organizations in the Chicago area don't invite him to things because they are afraid his mere presence will discredit their causes.

[thefooligan5]

"I firmly believe that violent jerks like Ayers actually prolonged the Vietnam War because they helped to discredit the antiwar movement."

Are you kidding me? The anti-war movement has virtually no power and they never do have any power. A bunch of people waving placards aren't going to change what goes in the white house. Politicians only care enough to be re-elected and even then, they don't need to care that much because they know they have a virtual lock on roughly half the country who subscribe to their party's agenda. The vietnam war didn't end because of protests, it ended because those in power realized that it didn't matter how stubborn they were, this was a war they could not win and far too much american blood had been spilled over something on the other side of the planet.
If protesting peacefully works so well, then why did the US government invade Iraq? The whole world was virtually protesting that and yet they did whatever the heck they wanted because they have the power, not the people with placards.

[Ladyrantsalot]

Violent protests and the whole counter-cultural movement disgusted working class people and drove them to vote for Nixon. And we know what happened next. Gandhi, Mandela, and King accomplished far more than Ayers, and Mao, and Bin Laden, and Zawahiri (all richy rich li'l radical boys) ever will. Violence convinces no one but a-holes.

[dutchess2]

G. Gordon Liddy is a real republican terrorists... travels wherever he wishes... the Freepers posting here love him.


The outrage over the remarks by syndicated radio talkshow host G. Gordon Liddy regarding the best way to kill BATF agents ("head shots" and the rest) overlooks an important point of the timing of those remarks--in the late summer and fall of 1994. In an election year where Republicans smelled political blood in the water, it was vital to encourage a massive voter turnout for their side.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1313

[swo68]

You should be a lawyer. The "but look at what he did" defense is priceless.

[jsgaetano]

Sure is. It's the cornerstone of the whiny puling steaming pile of oxymoron called "conservative thought".

[pupbayer]

Hey, Obama may be reaching out to Liddy yet. He reached out to Chuck Colson. You never know. You may be hearing more from G. Gordon.

[swo68]

It would have been better if Canada let him in, so we could refuse his return.

[Right-turn]

I second that motion! LOL