To: mayt@parliament.uk
Cc: pm@pm.gc.ca, crowderj@parl.gc.ca, public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk, ukbapublicenquiries@ukba.gsi.gov.uk

The Hon. Theresa May,

Secretary of State for the Home Department

London, England

Dear Madame Secretary:

Allow me to add a footnote to the letter from my son Reverend Kevin Annett, which is enclosed below, who was recently humiliated, detained, jailed and subsequently deported by a cretin in your Border Service Agency in London.

My family is descended from John Dunning, Lord Ashburton, who became prominent in Canada prior to 1825 in the settling of the border between Maine and New Brunswick. My family has served, fought and died for the British Empire, the British Commonwealth and our two nations over the following 200 years, beginning with Ashburton's grandson, Captain Robert Annett of the Irish Fusiliers, who served with Wellington at Waterloo. My father, Ross Annett, a "British subject,"long  before there was such a thing as Canadian citizenship, took a bullet at Vimy Ridge for bloody England and limped for the following 70 years of his life. My brother, Robert Annett, at the age of 19 gunnery officer on a destroyer stationed at Portsmouth, gave his life in an action in the British Channel in1944. 

In another vein, my ancestor, Peter Annett, an antecedent of Captain Robert Annett, also a clergyman like my son Kevin, in 1756 was clapped in the stocks in Charing Cross and then thrown in Newgate Prison, again like my son Kevin, for criticizing the Church of England and Rome.

Perhaps you can instruct me, Madame Secretary, as to whether my family has misplaced its loyalty and service  for 250 years and, perhaps more to the point, whether your current second-rate country has made any notable progress in human rights in all that time, although it has continually proclaimed itself to the world as the fount and bastion of freedom.

William Annett
1000 Walker Street#223
Holly Hill, Florida 32117
(386)323-5774
bilko23@gmail.com

Dear Ms. May,

  I am writing this formal letter of protest arising from my inhuman and shocking treatment at the hands of officers of the UK Border Agency on May 29-30, 2011 at Stansted Airport.

 I am a Canadian citizen with a valid Canadian passport and no criminal record, and am an ordained clergyman who has made numerous visits to Britain in the past several years to conduct research and give occasional public lectures on church and missionary history.  

On May 7, 2011, I arrived in Britain to stay about a month and to assist my daughter Elinor, who accompanied me and who has a valid work permit. I left Britain briefly on May 27and returned on May 29 after a brief visit with friends in the Netherlands.

Nevertheless, for nearly twelve hours upon my return to Stansted airport, I was detained,imprisoned, treated like a suspected criminal, and eventually barred from re-entering Britain. The only reason given for this mistreatment was that my giving occasional public lectures was not considered by the interrogating officer, apparently an expert on theological philosophy, sociology and political economics, to constitute "appropriate" behaviour for a visitor to Britain!

I am appalled that a civilized nation like Britain would stoop to abuse a Commonwealth citizen in this manner. The officer who detained me, who refused to give me his name but whose badge number is 6676, was utterly intransigent and unreasonable, and refused to cite the law and statutes under which I was denied re-entry as a visitor to Britain. He caused both me and my daughter Elinor "“ who was waiting to meet me in London - much distress and inconvenience over the following days,and did so without a shred of humanity.

Consequently, I was forced to spend over £300 obtaining a new plane ticket to Ireland after I was sent back to my starting point in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Even more serious is the fact that a permanent record of my refused re-entry to Britain has been stamped  on my Canadian passport, and for that reason  I was almost denied entry to Ireland during my recent attempt to return home from there to Canada.

Madame Secretary, this completely unnecessary incident could have been avoided if I had simply been allowed re-entry and a day or two of grace to set my affairs in order and obtain whatever work permit was required for me to conduct the public lectures that were supposedly the basis of the officer's decision to deny me re-entry. This would have been the sane and humanitarian course.

  I consider that my human rights have been grossly violated and I have undergone completely unnecessary personal assault at the hands of your Border Agency officials.Unless I obtain an apology and compensation from your office, I intend to pursue this matter in the courts and will share what has happened in the various media channels to  which I have access.

  However, I hope this matter can be settled more simply, and I am therefore requesting from your office the chance to clear up this matter upon my return to Canada with the appropriate diplomatic and government offices there. I also request that my passport be cleared of this unfortunate incident and that I be financially compensated for the expenses incurred by me because of your officials, which total in excess of £300.

  Ultimately,there can be no compensation for the insult, the duress and the inconvenience suffered by my family and me because of this incident, but I trust in the good graces of your government to help me correct this matter to avoid its repetition in the future.

  I look forward to your early reply within a week, after which I will proceed with  further action.

  Sincerely,

  Reverend Kevin D. Annett, M.A., M.Div.

260 Kennedy St.

Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada V9R 2H8

Ph: 1-250-753-3345

Cc: Damien Green, Minister of State for Immigration

Prime Minister of Canada

Prime Minister of Great Britain

M.P. (Nanaimo) Jean Crowder