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Charlotte Sheasby-Coleman is a Toronto-based advocate who fought for Chelsea Manning's release.

On Jan. 17, an e-mail arrived from my daughter: "Wow! What are you going to do with all your spare time now?" It attached an announcement from The New York Times:

"Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who leaked thousands of U.S. diplomatic and military cables to Wikileaks in 2010."

I almost fell out of my chair. Despite a flurry of activity the week before, when it was leaked that President Obama was considering a pardon for Chelsea (formerly Bradley), I had serious doubts that her freedom could possibly be in sight. It had, after all, been nearly seven years since she'd first been arrested in May 2010, and I had reached out to Mike Gogulski, an activist who'd purchased the domain bradleymanning.org and was looking for volunteers willing to keep this courageous young whistle-blower in the public eye and work for her freedom.

The initial planning conference call, and those that followed, were marathons. There were 12-15 individuals on those calls – mostly Americans – with one woman in Australia, another in Britain and me in Canada. Things sometimes got heated. There were disagreements including as to whether we should acknowledge our belief that Chelsea was indeed the source of the leaks, and who we would enlist as our fiscal partner. Each call involved a unique call-in number and pass code. Occasionally, our calls were hacked and we had to hang up and regroup. At one point, our web page was taken down and, in November of 2010, co-founder David House had his electronics seized on his return to the United States from vacation. I was later contacted by someone from the American Civil Liberties Union who wanted to know if my willingness to work on Chelsea's behalf had been compromised.

From the moment I first watched the "Collateral Murder" video she leaked, I can honestly say my belief in Chelsea never wavered. That video – of an Apache helicopter attack in July of 2007 that killed 11 Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters newsmen, and gravely injured two children – led me to action. It may not seem as shocking now due to the horrific images that have been released from other war-ravaged countries, but seven years ago, it was one of the first unadulterated slices of war that the public could see.

Chelsea's sharing of that video, along with the hundreds of thousands of other documents and images revealing horrors in Iraq and Afghanistan, unjustified detention at Guantanamo Bay and so much more was extraordinary. And, despite claims to the contrary, it was established at her court martial that no one was harmed by the information Chelsea shared.

Over seven years, our network, led by Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist and the tireless Rainey Reitman, garnered support from hundreds of thousands of people, raised almost $1.5-million for advocacy and defence, and ensured that there was accurate reporting of the pretrial and court martial. A critical accomplishment was ensuring that, after 11 tortuous months at Quantico, Chelsea was transferred to a better environment at Fort Leavenworth.

Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, Colonel Ann Wright, who resigned from the U.S. State Department in opposition to the invasion of Iraq and filmmaker Michael Moore were three notable figures who became vocal members of our advisory board. We got Amnesty International, AVAAZ and even the United Nations to stand up for Chelsea. We held numerous Days of Action – including in Toronto.

I was never certain how many would join us across from the U.S. consulate but many caring people did – including veterans from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, those who have witnessed the horrors of war are most eager to speak out.

Following her conviction in 2013, Chelsea made public her desire to transition genders, and her fight for acceptance of trans rights has lead to awareness and change in the military and beyond. I know that Chelsea will be a strong voice for social justice and peace.

In a recent phone interview with The Guardian, Chelsea said:

"I'm looking forward to breathing the warm spring air again. I want that indescribable feeling of connection with people and nature again, without razor wire or a visitation booth. I want to be able to hug my family and friends again. And swimming – I want to go swimming."

Chelsea Manning is free. Anything is possible.

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