An organizer of the “No Games Chicago” movement says he was barred from entering Canada at the Vancouver airport – just days before the Winter Olympic Games.
Nothing against the Canadian people, says 20-year-old Martin Macias of Chicago. But he says he wants to know why Canada denied him entry this past weekend.
“It really is strange. And the only thing I can come up with is that they really thought I was a threat and that I was there with the intention of disrupting the games.”
Macias says he wanted to go to Vancouver to attend a conference of like-minded people who, among other things, were not keen on the Olympic Games.
But he says he planned to leave before the opening ceremonies.
Macias says Canadian customs searched his bags and talked to him for at least three hours before putting him on a plane to Seattle.
Macias says he thinks his rejection at the Canadian border has something to do with a phone number Canadian customs found in his address book – during that three-hour interview.
Macias says it was the number supplied by organizers of a conference in Vancouver of people who weren’t necessarily pleased to see the Olympic Games there.
“The customs agent decided that this number in my phone book showed that I was there in Vancouver with the intention of getting arrested or being involved in some kind of protest that would cause destruction of property in Vancouver… By just this little number in my phone book, which I think is ridiculous.”
Macias says he was planning to leave Vancouver before the games started.
A spokeswoman for the Canadian consulate in Chicago could not be immediately reached for comment.
Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.
‘No Games Chicago’ organizer barred from entering Canada at Vancouver airport originally published on Chicago Press Release Services