Immigration hearing for U.S. peace activist postponed

By CBC

An American peace activist will be in limbo in Vancouver for at least another 10 days after her immigration hearing was postponed on Tuesday.

Alison Bodine, 22, was arrested by Canadian border officials on Thursday, when she stopped at the Canada Border Services facility at the Peace Arch border crossing.

She intended to pick up some anti-war literature that was confiscated as she entered Canada. Instead, the U.S. resident learned she was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.

Bodine, who is from Colorado, was detained and then released, but ordered to appear at an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Tuesday morning in Vancouver. Her car, passport and other personal items were seized by border officials.

When she turned up for the hearing, Bodine learned it had been postponed for another 10 days.

"That leaves me without any photo identification," Bodine said Tuesday. "That leaves me without any clothes, and also without my car, and also the political and personal materials that have been seized from me.

"I really think that I have been targeted as a political organizer," Bodine said. "They've had plenty of time to fully identify who I am, to look at the work I do, to look through photos, look through notebooks."

Bodine said there is nothing in any of the material that should have prompted a warrant for her arrest.

So far, immigration officials have refused to give her any information about why she arrested and why the hearing was ordered, she said.

An official with the Immigration and Refugee Board said it was not unusual to reschedule a hearing, but would not comment on the particulars of the case.