RCMP officers have decided a well-known Ottawa social commentator who was refused media accreditation for the G8 summit in Alberta isn't a security concern after all.
When she returned home from Calgary last week, Pam Foster found messages from a police officer on her voice mail left the day the summit started. A decision to deny her access to the G8 media centre in Calgary had been reversed.
By the time she got the message, the June 26-27 summit was over, said Ms. Foster, the co-ordinator of the Halifax Initiative, a Canadian coalition of development, environment and labour groups formed in advance of 1995 G7 summit in Halifax.
Ms. Foster says she was never told exactly why the RCMP turned her down, nor why they reversed their decision. She is also frustrated the officer didn't call her on her cellphone, a number Alberta RCMP had used to contact her earlier.
At the G8, Ms. Foster planned to write for the monthly journal Upstream, as well as other publications and Web sites of non-governmental organizations.
The move to turn down her application had come as a surprise to people she has worked with, including former finance minister Paul Martin and junior minister Gar Knutson.
Ms. Foster said she was told there were four criteria for disqualification: having a criminal record; being mentally unfit; exhibiting anti-social behaviour; or having political views that are subversive, violent or extremist.
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