Canada Reputation: Aminata Traor

canada reputation: Aminata Traoré is shown at the 2002 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre Brazil. "Especially since I've been to Canada several times to give conferences on the same themes." Traoré said she was told her visa application did not meet the requirements, but wasn't told why, according to Huffington Post Canada. She said she recently sent her documents for a third time to the Canadian embassy in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, where the visas are processed. Aminata Traoré, a high-profile anti-globalization activist and a former minister of tourism and culture in Mali, said the visa controversy is a stain on Canada reputation as an open country. "Honestly I wasn't expecting this," Traoré told Radio-Canada in an interview. But at this point, she said, the back-and-forth process has made her question her desire to attend the conference. "I don't know if I'll get the visa or not, but ultimately, I just decided today that taking into account all of these difficulties, I don't want to look like someone who been rescued," she said. The World Social Forum, an annual meeting bringing together activists and leftist intellectuals from around the world, runs from Aug. 9 to Aug. 14 in Montreal. "The government is very much aware of the situation and we hope to have good news," said Carminda Mac Laurin, one of the event organizers. Dreadful lesson in democracy' Traoré called the ordeal a "worrying" and "dreadful lesson in democracy." "It is precisely these countries that are supposedly there to give lessons to our democracies," she said. "In reality, the West is more and more afraid of debates on ideas ... We are bearers of ideas, not bombs." Despite increased media attention on the problem, organizers said several guests had yet to obtain their visas with the event set to begin Tuesday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.