US activist "not welcome in Canada"

Well-known civil rights activist M.L.King was detained at the Ottawa airport and hustled back to the U.S. on Thursday by Canadian immigration officials, after his name turned up on an FBI watch list. He had been invited to address a peace rally today.

"The man has a rap sheet as long as your arm," said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "He's simply not welcome in Canada."

DawgNews has learned that King has indeed been charged with and convicted of numerous offences in several American states:

• September 4, 1958: convicted for not obeying a police officer, in Montgomery, Alabama.

• February 27, 1962: convicted of leading a march in Albany, Georgia.
  
  
• July 27, 1962: convicted of obstructing a sidewalk, failure to obey a police officer, and disorderly conduct, again in Albany.
  

• April 1963: arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting segregation. His sentence was upheld by the US Supreme Court on October 30, 1967.

• May-June 1964: jailed for demonstrating for integration of public accommodation in St. Augustine, Florida.

"Canadians can sleep more easily tonight," an Immigration spokesperson said. "If it hadn't been for the FBI sharing their list with us, this guy might have just entered Canada as he pleased."

Diane Finley, Minister of Immigration, under heavy criticism from peace and civil rights groups, defended her front-line officers. "We don't need no outside agitators here rilin' up our folks," she said. "Our boys know how to take care of that, and I'm right proud of 'em."