Ottawa
says Pakistanis, Arabs unfairly targeted by US
Canada Angry at
Latest US Attempts to Secure Border
Mark Bourrie
OTTAWA:
Many Canadian commentators and politicians are denouncing the
latest US move to secure its border with its northern neighbour
by demanding passports and in some cases visas from Canadian residents
of British Commonwealth countries who want to enter the United
States.
The
policy, announced last week, follows a rare Canadian government
travel advisory to citizens born in certain Middle Eastern countries
to reconsider if they wanted to cross the border because of new
US security rules that include fingerprinting.
Canada's
immigration minister says the country has been unfairly tagged
by the US government as a nation with porous borders. Denis
Coderre said the US rules would create two classes of Canadians.
”All
the screening, all the testing, all the criteria that you have
to go through to become a permanent (Canadian) resident, I think
that's enough,” Coderre told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
this week. ''I
believe that it's racial profiling and we have to do something
about it.”
The
US plan requires travellers living in Canada who are citizens
of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to
carry passports. Foreign nationals living in Canada from about
50 other Commonwealth countries - most of them in the developing
world - would need both a passport and a visa to enter the United
States.
Canadian
citizens can enter the United States without passports as long
as they have other forms of identification. Paul
Cellucci, US ambassador to Canada, defended the visa proposal,
saying it is meant to keep the United States safe by standardising
entry requirements for
all citizens of certain countries.
”If
you have a citizenship from a Commonwealth country, the rules
will essentially be the same as if you live in that Commonwealth
country, because that is your country,” he said in an interview,
stressing the rules would not apply to Canadian citizens.
”I
would hope (landed immigrants) would recognise that the United
States is trying to put consistency into these rules and regulations
so that people who have citizenship in a particular country are
all treated pretty much the same,'' he added.
''If
you live in Pakistan you need a visa to come to the United States,
but if you're a Pakistani citizen living in Canada, shouldn't
the rules be the same?” Canadian
officials are fighting the common impression south of the border
that Canada has been a haven and jumping-off point for terrorists.
Immediately after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United
States it was speculated that the killers had entered via Canada.
It
later became clear that none of the hijackers had lived in Canada
or spent time in this country and that all of them were legally
in the United States. Right-wing
commentator and presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan has been
one of the more vocal critics of Canada. Last week, he called
Canada ''Soviet Canuckistan'', and told a Canadian television
interviewer that terrorists are making maps of Canada.
''You
have a serious problem with security in your own country and I
do think Canada has been derelict.” That
day, Rohinton Mistry, a Canadian of Indian heritage and one of
this country's most celebrated authors, cancelled his US book
tour, complaining that he has faced ”unbearable” humiliation
as a result of racial profiling in American airports. Mistry was
halfway through the tour when he decided to come home.
In
September, the Department of Foreign Affairs issued a travel advisory,
saying Canadians born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, or Syria could
be subjected to increased attention from US authorities. Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and Yemen were later added to the list.
That
meant Canadians were fingerprinted and photographed at some border
crossings, and one Syrian-born Canadian was arrested in New York
and deported to Jordan without Canadian authorities being notified.
Maher
Arar, an engineer and Canadian citizen since 1987, is now believed
to be in a Syrian jail, being held for failing to fulfil the country's
mandatory military service obligation.
Reaction
from senior Canadian officials has been vigorous. ”A person
travelling on a Canadian passport is a Canadian citizen and has
a right to be treated as a Canadian citizen,” said Foreign
Affairs Minister Bill Graham last month after Arar was deported.
”I have registered our protest to the United States.”
Natural
Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal called the latest policies ”the
ugly face of America''.
Canada
is still trying to quietly deal with sovereignty issues that have
arisen over the case of 16-year-old Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen,
who was arrested in Afghanistan earlier this year for the murder
of a Special Forces medic. Foreign
ministry officials said the International Red Cross had been permitted
to meet Khadr, who was badly wounded but has reportedly been treated
by US forces and is recovering in a US prison in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
Foreign
Affairs officials said they had contacted US counterparts Aug.
30 requesting a meeting with Khadr. ”Discussions are continuing,”
the department said, but so far, the US military has refused
to grant them access to Khadr.
”The
Canadian government is satisfied that individuals held by the
US are being treated humanely. However, the Department is concerned
that a Canadian juvenile has been detained, and believes that
this individual's age should be taken into account in determining
treatment,” Foreign Affairs said. - IPS
