In a decision on April 8, the Immigration and Refugee Council sided with the federal government that it should be barred from entering because of the seriousness of its espionage history. “Considering that Ms. Manning was convicted of an offense outside of Canada, which, if committed in Canada, would be an offense under an act of Parliament punishable by at least 10 years’ imprisonment,” the commission said in a statement. Manning’s quarrel dates back to September 2017, when her border guards denied entry and argued that if her offenses had been committed in Canada, they would have been “tantamount to a felony charge of treason.” The Canadian Border Service can deny entry to any traveler on the grounds of “criminal inadmissibility”. Manning became famous more than a decade ago with the leak of hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, the site founded by Julian Assange while serving in the US military. Her actions have attracted praise and condemnation. Manning said she wanted to reveal what she saw as the US military’s contempt for how the war in Iraq affected civilians and that it did so “out of love” for her country. In 2013, he was convicted of six counts of violating the espionage law – which prohibits unauthorized individuals from sharing national defense information – and a handful of other charges, including theft of state property. She was acquitted of the most serious charge against her: the help of the enemy.
Lawyers say they will ask for a review
In one of his last acts as US president, Barack Obama reduced Manning’s sentence in 2017. He was released from military prison after serving seven years in prison for 35 years. During her hearing in Canada, Manning’s lawyers argued that her US offenses were not equivalent to Canadian offenses and that she should be allowed to enter. Manning’s lawyers also argued that her actions were justified by “necessity” and that the public interest in disclosing this information outweighed the damage. “I was shocked at how little people knew about how bad the war was,” Manning said Thursday during his affidavit. Her lawyers say they intend to seek judicial review.
