Canadian government lawyers invited Chelsea Manning to hearing so border agents could remove her

Chelsea Manning has asked a court in Canada to overturn her travel ban so she can visit friends, hoping to visit the country despite border agents eager to expel her.

Manning, 33, has been blocked from visiting the country due to her conviction for leaking military secrets to WikiLeaks. Manning served seven years in prison from 2010-17 for breaking the Espionage Act.

In one of his last acts as president, Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence and she was released from her 35-year sentence. 

In September 2017 she was stopped at the border, trying to enter Quebec, and has been fighting ever since to regain her right to enter the country.

On Thursday a hearing was held in Ottawa, which government lawyers invited her to attend in person because they wanted to forcibly remove her if she lost her case. 

‘The minister submits that holding an admissibility hearing without the person concerned being physically present in Canada would preclude them from enforcing a removal order which may be issued at the end of the proceedings,’ the lawyers acting for the minister of public safety argued.

The Immigration and Refugee Board denied the minister’s request to delay the hearing until Manning could appear in person. 

‘If she were physically in Canada when the order was made, the requirement would be that she leave Canada,’ wrote adjudicator Marisa Musto.

‘Given that she is already outside Canada, a fact which is not in question, it can be said that the ‘objective’ of in regards to denying access to Canadian territory to persons who are inadmissible would, de facto, be fulfilled.’

Manning, who since her release from prison has become an advocate for transgender rights, ran for senate in Massachusetts and worked as a security consultant, told the hearing on Thursday that she hoped the issue could finally be resolved.

‘I really like Canada,’ she told the hearing, according to CBC.

‘I have many friends in Canada and obviously the pandemic has gotten in the way of a lot of this, but certainly in 2018 and 2019 I wanted to visit some friends in Canada, particularly in Montreal and Vancouver.’

Ahead of the hearing, her lawyers stated: ‘Despite seeking to ban her from entering the country, Canadian officials have acknowledged that Ms. Manning’s leaks caused little to no harm, and that she poses no risk to Canada.’ 

Yet Anthony Lashley, a government lawyer, said that the Canadian government did not want her to be allowed to enter the country. 

Manning’s lawyer, Joshua Blum, argued her American offenses were not relevant in Canada, because Canada has different laws, so she should be allowed to enter the country. 

The documents included diplomatic cables, sensitive information about Guantanamo Bay, and details of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They also included harrowing video footage of U.S. troops shooting dead Iraqi civilians and a Reuters photographer from a helicopter in 2007. 

‘We have a public interest defence for what Manning was convicted of,’ he said. 

‘The U.S. doesn’t.’

Blum also argued Manning’s actions were justified by ‘necessity’ and that the public interest in disclosing that information outweighed the harm.

‘The ongoing and unreported killings of Iraqi and Afghan civilians necessitated this act of whistleblowing,’ he said.

‘We further add the acts of whistleblowing are acts of honesty, not fraudulence.’

Asked by Blum to explain why she leaked the documents, Manning said ‘it always feels so self evident.’

She added: ‘I was just shocked at how little people knew about how bad the war in particular was.’

Manning said she didn’t share sensitive documents that would have revealed the sources of U.S. government intelligence. 

She is still bound by a non-disclosure agreement with the U.S. government and did not go into detail about what she leaked. 

Manning’s hearing will continue on Friday.