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Canadian Border Tightens Due to Info Sharing
blu3 b0y writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that new information sharing agreements have made it as easy for a Canadian border officer to know the full criminal records of US citizens as it is for their local police. As a result, Canadian officials are turning away American visitors for ancient minor convictions, including 30-year-old shoplifting and minor drug possession convictions. Officials claim it's always been illegal to enter Canada with such convictions without getting special dispensation, they just had no good way of knowing about them until recent security agreements allowed access. One attorney speculates it's not long before this information will be shared with other countries as well, causing immigration hassles worldwide."
Me too! Who wants to go to Canada? I kid, I kid.
In all seriousness though, what does this prove? Nothing but keeping tourist $ out of Canada from likely legitimate people. Of course, there's an old saying that goes: "Two wrongs, don't make a right."
Canadians sound selfish. They act like they're the only ones this has happened too. It's not like the current "fight terrorism" policies are aimed at Canada specifically. The policies are targeting people, not countries.
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
I do find it very amusing that the US is having a hard time with Canada's policy. I'm a british citizen and have been based in our Canadian office for the past four years, and prior to that I worked in our UK office. I have had to make various business trips to both our US and Canadian offices, plus I've made various visits from Canada back to the UK for personal vistits. I've never had a problem with Canadian immigration, when I turned up wishing to obtain a work permit it was dealt with at the airport in a swift and pleasant manner. The same cannot be said for trying to do business in the US. I think that in the seven years I've been travelling to the US on business I've had three polite and pleasant encounters with border services. The rest of the time I'm made to feel as though I should get down on my knees and praise the US for being so kind as to let me enter to do business. I'm required to provide a letter from the company stating where I am going and why. I've also been asked to provide purchase orders when I am going to visit a client to give a pre-sales demonstration of our software. I am polite and courtious and never point out this is a somewhat odd requirement, as I do not wish to anger the oh-so-powerfull border agent and cause him to refuse me entry for some reason. The flipside is that whenever I enter Canada, be it from the UK, or the US, I have never had any problems whatsoever, even before getting a work permit and thus being an ordinary business traveller. It's for the reasons mentioned above that I find going to the US a bit of a chore. My point? It seems that the US has gone absolutley security paranoid, and they appear to have adopted the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude. If you want "in" to the best country in the world, well, boy, you're going to have prove why we should let you in to our great land (here's a clue chaps, it's not that great! :-D). They think it's fine to belittle people at the border, but god forbid if any other country decides it wants to instigate higher security measures which would impact the fine good american citizens entering another country, especially one sharing the same continent as them.
Time for them to taste their own bitter pill? I think so.
I hope we can get rid of that clown very very soon.