A fragile exemption from border restrictions

November 16, 2004

16 November 2004

A fragile exemption from border restrictions

The following article is extracted from the 16 November 2004 edition of “globeandmail.com”.

….. What gives is a fragile exemption from coercive new restrictions that the Americans have placed on visitors to the United States. Goodwill and economic common sense continue to work in Canada's favour. Unfortunately, domestic political considerations are keeping Ottawa from taking steps that could make that exemption more secure.

At first, critics thought the Americans would never spend the estimated $10-billion needed to fully implement US VISIT, as it's called. Then they doubted the technology would work. Then they doubted the Homeland Security bureaucracy would meet its deadlines.

The critics were wrong. US VISIT is up and running at all airports and seaports and, by the end of this year, will be in place at the 50 busiest land-border crossings. The program will be fully implemented by the end of 2005. Virtually every visitor to the United States will have to submit two digital fingerprints (known in the parlance as biometric identifiers) on arrival. They must also provide a digitalized photograph. The information is then compared electronically with a terrorist watch list, along with databases on criminals, sexual offenders and others unwelcome in the United States. The visitors must register again as they leave the country.

… Canadian citizens, however, are exempt, although landed immigrants must submit to the program. That exemption is not enshrined in law or regulation; it is simply a courtesy. And already some American politicians and security officials are warning that the Canadian loophole weakens the effectiveness of US VISIT and should be reviewed.

The appropriate solution, from a public-security and ease-of-transit point of view, would be to institute a Canadian equivalent to the U.S. program, and for the two countries to share databases. Such an approach would ensure that Canadian and U.S. citizens would remain exempt when travelling between the two countries.

But Canadians remain leery about giving too much of our information to American security services. So Canada has confined itself to implementing an agreement reached among the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A beefed-up passport next year will contain an electronic chip to help customs officials verify that the passport is genuine. None of the information, however, contains a biometric identifier. No fingerprints for us.

This may be enough for a while. …. Sooner or later, however, continental security will require harmonization of American and Canadian entry-exit programs. Canada will either take the lead in refining our technology and harmonizing it with the American system while protecting, as much as possible, the private information of Canadian citizens, or it will wait for the Americans to decide our fate….


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel
Document Type: 
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