Paul Fromm is a Canadian free speech activist who has made many trips to the United States to speak at various conferences. While at the airport to head to California for one such speaking engagement, Paul was given the third degree when he attempted to board his flight.

Dave Gahary had a chance to sit down with Paul, who recounted his experience with DHS agents at Toronto Pearson International Airport on June 26, who made it plain that he was being hassled and turned down because of his politics, in this disturbing interview (44:55).

Dave Gahary, a former submariner in the U.S. Navy, is the host of AFP’s ‘Underground Interview’ series.

Be sure to check out all of AFP’s free audio interviews. You’ll find them on the HOME PAGE, in the ARCHIVES & in the AUDIO section.

It’s 1984 on the Canadian Border

• Free speech activist denied entry to U.S.—but illegal aliens receive ‘sanctuary’

By Paul T. Angel

In the same week that one illegal alien out of tens of millions currently hiding out in the United States murdered a California woman in broad daylight, U.S. law enforcement denied entry to a conservative Canadian activist who was coming to the U.S. to attend a political conference.

On July 1, Kathryn Michelle “Kate” Steinle was senselessly murdered in front of her father by Francisco Sanchez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had seven felony convictions and had been deported five times. For no apparent reason, Sanchez shot Miss Steinle in the head. She died in her father’s arms, crying: “Dad, help me, help me.”

U.S. law enforcement at all levels—from the nation’s top prosecutor all the way down to the local beat cops in San Francisco—had all failed to keep this violent criminal off the streets.

Now compare that to the way that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) handled Paul Fromm who had been invited to be the keynote speaker at a meeting of the American Freedom Party in Tehachapi, California.

AMERICAN FREE PRESS recently had the opportunity to speak with Fromm about his ordeal at the hands of U.S. authorities while trying to visit the country.

Passing through pre-clearance at Toronto Pearson International Airport on his way to Los Angeles, on June 26, Fromm was confronted by agents who made it plain that he was being hassled and turned down because of his politics.

When asked what his purpose for traveling was, Fromm replied that he was speaking to the American Freedom Party near Bakersfield.

“That’s a white supremacist group,” a DHS agent replied.

Sent to secondary inspection, Fromm was then detained for three hours.

When he was finally questioned, the issue of “white supremacy” again came up. Fromm said the party is not a white supremacist group and does not seek to impose American ways on other countries. It is, he added, pro-isolationism.

Relying on Wikipedia, the agent said Fromm and the American Freedom Party had “totalitarian affiliations.”

Fromm said he was then asked to “prove I was not being paid by the American Freedom Party.”

The Canadian activist responded that it was hard to prove a negative.

He then was told to provide information about the conference—“who, what, where, when”—and that there was no remuneration. He was also told to provide tax slips that showed employment in Canada.

Fromm rebooked his flight to an evening flight, returned to his Port Credit home and obtained copies of the necessary tax slips and a detailed invitation from American Freedom Party president William Johnson.

When Fromm returned to catch his flight, he was sent immediately to secondary inspection without even a question being asked.

Clearly, agents were waiting for him. The bored agent who examined him showed no interest in the documentation he’d been asked to provide. His luggage was searched and some patriotic flags noted. The agent then told him he’d need a visa to enter the U.S. Most Canadians do not need a visa.

Unfortunately, Fromm said he missed the speaking engagement at the American Freedom Party.

The next weekend Fromm was invited to speak at singer and activist Paul Topete’s Freedompalooza, which was being held in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Fromm said he applied for a visa online and obtained an expedited interview, June 30, still hoping to be able to attend the gathering.

On attending the visa office at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Fromm was fingerprinted and then seen by a Canadian agent.

“She asked me why I was applying for a visa,” said Fromm. “I told her that I could not see how it applied to me.”

Fromm said the female agent told him: “That’s their way of saying they don’t want you in the United States. ‘You had Nazi flags in your suitcase,’ she said.”

Fromm added that he told her there were no Nazi flags.

He then was asked about his birthplace.

“When did you [come to Canada] from Germany,” Fromm said he was asked. “I told her I was born in Colombia, as it says on my passport. A few minutes later, she asked whether my father had served in the German army. I told her, ‘No. My late father was a Canadian and served in the Royal Canadian Navy in WWII and my mother served in the Canadian army as a nurse.’ ”

Fromm was then told that the agent would need that further information and a further administrative review would be necessary. That process, he was told, would take three months.

As a result, Fromm said he missed Freedompalooza and has had to cancel several other speaking engagements in the U.S. this summer.

“I feel that I’m the victim of German-bashing,” said Fromm. “If I had a long criminal record and had snuck in from Mexico, there would have been no problem.”