Sputnik
October 8, 2021
-Sputnik
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Canadian government has asked the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) to order former US army intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea Manning to come to the country so that she can participate in her immigration hearing in person and then be deported, but the request was dismissed, National Post reported.
The request was sent last week in anticipation of the hearing on whether Manning, who was responsible for the leak of thousands of US classified documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has the right to enter Canada. Manning said she wanted to go to Canada to visit friends. The hearing was held by videoconference.
The newspaper reported that lawyers asked the IRB, on behalf of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair, to postpone the hearing until Manning is in Canada to attend it in person, rather than via internet from her home in the United States.
“The purpose of a removal order is to compel an individual who is found to be inadmissible to leave Canada. Should the (IRB) issue a removal order against an individual who does not attend their hearing from a location in Canada,” the request read.
The IRB dismissed the request on Monday, saying that its goal is to ensure that people who are not allowed to be in Canada are not in the country.
In August 2013, Manning — born male as Bradley Manning — was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for leaking scores of military and diplomatic files and documents to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. She was credited with exposing US human rights violations and potential war crimes in Iraq, among other abuses. While in prison, Manning completed her gender change.
In January 2017, Manning’s defence requested a pardon from former US President Barack Obama and received a reduction of the sentence to a total of seven years. She was released in May of that year. Manning was later summoned to the court to testify against Julian Assange, which she refused to do, ending up in prison once again. It was not until the analyst attempted suicide in March 2020 that the court ceased action against her.