At 5:23 p.m. yesterday, British comedian Avery Edison was detained at Pearson International Airport after flying to Toronto to visit her girlfriend. On its face, this was a routine detainment—she reports that she was prevented from coming into Canada because she had overstayed her student visa on a previous visit—but thanks to the magic combination of Twitter, Pearson’s free wifi and Edison’s wit, the situation resulted in an eight-hour tweet-a-thon detailing every twist and turn of the case.
The most interesting element of the narrative involves Canadian border-control officers trying to handle the fact that Edison is transgender. According to her Twitter feed, Edison’s case was referred to a hearing, and she was kept at the airport until arrangements could be made—only security personnel were unsure where to hold her.
