Peter Watts Mistreatment Update

Last weekend I posted a couple of pieces about the outrageous treatment of Canadian sci-fi author Peter Watts by US border guards as he was returning to his home country.

Darksyde (obviously not his real name but as it isn’t given I won’t include it here) over at Daily Kos has posted a short interview.

DS: Have you ever heard of anything similar happening to other Canadians?

PW: Especially in the wake of this incident, I’ve heard no end to the first-hand accounts of contemptuous and belligerent treatment at the border. Nobody likes it. Most folks just bite their tongues and keep their eyes down.

More importantly, though, is that the only reason you heard about anything happening to this Canadian is because I had friends I didn’t know I had. If folks hadn’t mobilized so massively and unexpectedly, I suspect I might still be in jail (I’m told ICE has all sorts of leeway in detaining aliens). I’m not an especially prominent guy, but it turns out I have allies with a lot of clout in the online community; when Cory Doctorow raises his voice, half the web pricks up its ears. But what about all the other poor bastards who go through what I did, or worse, and don’t have such folks in their corner? What about my passenger, who was also handcuffed and detained for hours (although not pepper-sprayed or physically struck, thankfully), then spat out into Canada a few hundred kilometers from home?

It doesn’t look as if Peter’s mistreatment was an isolated case, it just looks as if he was the first with any sort of public profile. The Daily Kos piece is worth a look as much for the comment section as the main article.