Chelsea Manning invited back to Canada after being denied entry last year

Former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been granted a visa to speak at an event in Canada later this month after being denied entry last fall, organizers of the annual conference in Montreal say.

"A true pioneer, we're humbled that Chelsea chose the C2 Montral stage for her first public appearance inCanada," said the event's presidentRichard St-Pierre.

Organizers said the visa was arranged through Manning's team and is valid from May 23-25.

Manningattempted to enter Canada on Sept. 22, 2017, but was detained at Quebec'sSt-Bernard-de-Lacolleborder crossing and ultimately denied entry because of her prior conviction in the United Stateson espionage charges.

She was convicted by a U.S. military court in 2010 for providing a wide-ranging trove of classified documents including diplomatic cables, incident reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistanand evidence of human rights abuses by the U.S. military to the websiteWikileaks.

She was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but in one of Barack Obama'slast acts as president, he commutedManning's sentence.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who overseas the CanadaBorder Services Agency, wouldn't comment on the visa.

"We don't comment about individual admissibility decisions due to privacy reasons," said Scott Bardsley.

The seventh edition of the conference,described as a conference on commerceand creativity, is being held May 23-25.