Who is Making our Border Decisions?
October 24, 2007Niagara Falls is one of the wonders of the world, and a point of Canadian national pride. The Falls lie on the border with the United States, however the more impressive Horseshoe Falls are within Canada's jurisdiction. While Canadians take pride in ownership of the better share of the famous waterfall, recent incidents at the nearby border crossing with the U.S. call into question how much control Canada really holds over its famous landmark, and who may enter the country to see it.
The controversy began when two peace activists, one the founder of an NGO and the other a retired US army colonel, attempted to enter Canada on October 3rd. The pair was refused entry to Canada on the basis of criminal inadmissibility. Canada does have clear rules calling for a clean criminal record; but what is at issue here is how, and more importantly where, the decision on their admissibility was made.
The criminal records in question resulted from peaceful protests opposing the Iraq war. Arrests at such protests landed the pair in a national FBI database called the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). This same database is used by Canada to screen visitors coming to Canada. That peaceful protests land someone in an FBI national database is questionable, but it is a matter of U.S. domestic policy. That the FBI is effectively selecting who has the right to enter Canada is a matter of Canadian sovereignty.
While certainly Canada's Border Services Agency has to rely on other governments for information about criminal records, there is a difference between using information and accepting information wholesale. For those with criminal records there is a well-established mechanism in Temporary Resident Permits (TRP), which is commonly used for individuals with minor offences who pose no danger to the well-being or safety of Canadians. That is certainly the case here.
It is crucial to Canadian sovereignty that decisions on who is allowed to enter the country are made by Canadian officials. By accepting at face value the NCIC database as a test on admissibility to Canada is de facto to transfer a chunk of Canadian border sovereignty to the United States. In response to this controversy some have made the argument that since the protestors were opposing the Iraq war, which Canada deemed not to join, their actions are perhaps not out of line with Canadian values. An interesting argument to make, but one that misses the fundamental issue is at stake here. Canadian border decisions should be made by Canadian officials and not foreign governments. Period.
9 Comments:
I agree with what you have mentioned, as this what keep the Canadian a Canadian..
Keep up the good work!
I would have thought the Maher Arar fiasco would have taught us enough about taking American 'intelligence' information at face value. Clearly, it has not.
When are people going to finally realize this whole 'war on terror' campaign is an overblown knee-jerk that his given governments unnecessary powers over our freedoms?.
people don't have convictions upheld for peaceful protests, civil disobedience is not peaceful protest
canadian should follow up on these people then and not just deny entrance, ofcourse every country need to rely on one another's intelligence but each country should not take it wholesale
Canada should stand up and do what is good for Canada. This does not include being a bootlicker to the Bush regime.
absolutely canada should handle its business before america tries to help them- IMMIGRATION IS A WORD WITH A THOUSAND ANGLES-IF YOU NEED help entering the united states- please check out this site
http://www.usaimmigration-attorney.com/
in response to the person who wrote "people don't have convictions upheld for peaceful protests, civil disobedience is not peaceful protest."
Civil disobedience for those who are mistaken is the active refusal to obey certain laws and IS one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance. It is used widely in the peace movement.
Nonviolent resistance = peaceful protest.
I find this discussion interesting for another reason . . . knowing what I do about FBI criminal clearances, arrests show up - regardless of whether there was ever a conviction. In other words, you can be arrested for something you didn't do, and acquitted in a Court of law, and that arrest will still show up in an FBI database. People are arrested all the time - that does not mean they are guilty. Typically, in both the US and Canada, a person is innocent until proven guilty - and police officials frequently arrest individuals involved in protests to effect nothing more than crowd control - so, unless these people were convicted of a CRIME for having been involved in a peaceful protest, refusing them entry to Canada is punitive overkill. Having had issue myself with a particularily nasty IO at the Niagara border crossing, I have to say I'm not surprised to hear this happened. I wouldn't call it anything more than what it is - a Canadian border official who gets off on throwing their weight around just s/he can.
These people were arrested. Peaceful people are not arrested. Who says it was peaceful? The people involved. Let them continue their protests in the US. If they were arrested for murder and they said they didn't, would they be admitted? Lots of US leftys are againsit the congressionally approved and funded war, are they arrested? Only a few.....Those that broke the law.
Post a Comment