The embarrassment to Canada's government over the treatment of journalist Ellen Goodman by the Canadian Border Services Agency (see OK, let's put a stop to this. Now. elsewhere on this blog) wasn't great enough to keep it from happening again. This time, the victim was Martin Macias Jr., who was turned back at the airport because he planned to attend some sort of anti-Olympics conference this week. His plans were to leave town before the actual start of the 2010 games.

The same Faith St. John who was the spokeswoman for CBSA in the Goodman case was the spokeswoman in this one. According to an article by Bob Mackin in 24 Hours, CBSA won't comment on barred Olympic journalist, "it’s policy to not discuss individual cases. She said the reasons for denying access include involvement in criminal activity, human rights violations, organized crime and for security, health or financial reasons."

The first sentence of this is reasonable, and has to do with the protection of privacy. If you had some sort of issue at a border crossing having to do with a custody battle over one of your children, you wouldn't want the details to be available to anyone who files a Freedom of Information request. However, people such as Mr. Macias can choose to waive the right of privacy.

I hope that he does so. Was he denied entry to Canada because of "involvement in criminal activity, human rights violations, organized crime and for security, health or financial reasons?" If so, let's hear about it. Was he denied entry because he holds opinions that NBC, Visa, Coca-Cola, MacDonald's et al don't especially like? If so, let's hear about it, to open up CBSA to legal action under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Bob Mackin has been doing a great job of covering stories about the 2010 Olympics that the Vancouver Sun, CKNW, and the other mainstream media won't go near. These stories deserve a larger audience, so I'm posting a link to this one: Bus trouble for VANOC as drivers revolt.

We should be concerned that there are buses on the road that have overheating brakes, non-functioning tail lights and turn signals, and drivers behind the wheel who have worked over the 13-hour legal maximum for a day. However, here's something more political to be concerned about: Gameday Management, the Florida company that was hired by VANOC to manage transportation for the 2010 games, is busy managing transportation for the Super Bowl in Miami instead. This is potentially another BC Rail.

Story by Ted Field on Global TV Vancouver: click here for MP4

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