The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53077 Message #815196
Posted By: GUEST,What do you think?
31-Oct-02 - 10:42 AM
Thread Name: BS: Canada Issues Caution on Travel to U.S.
Subject: BS: Canada Issues Caution on Travel to U.S.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada, in a highly unusual travel warning, on Wednesday urged Canadian citizens born in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia to think carefully before entering the United States, saying they could fall afoul of tough new U.S. anti-terrorism laws.
The Foreign Ministry said it issued the advisory after Washington stipulated that anyone born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, or Syria needed to be photographed and fingerprinted on arrival in the United States.
This includes citizens of Canada, a country which is traditionally regarded as one of the closest allies of the United States.
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Ottawa's travel warning follows the controversial deportation of a Canadian citizen by the United States to Syria, his birthplace, earlier this month.
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U.S. critics charge that Canada's immigration system does not do enough to weed out militants who might want to launch attacks in the United States. Graham said he had stressed to U.S. officials that all immigrants had to go through tough security screening before coming to Canada.
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Hussein Amery, president of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, said the U.S. rules were a clear case of racial profiling and urged Ottawa to toughen its stance.
"It certainly looks, smells and feels like racism...the Americans are certainly not treating Canadians as friends when they do this," he added, referring to the Arar case.