XDrFirefly
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New Passport Laws vs. Canada, John Titor predict?
John Titor's Prediction on Canada being mad at us? Is this the Start?
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/04.../pf-983473.html
Dr FF
John Titor's Prediction on Canada being mad at us? Is this the Start?
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/04.../pf-983473.html
U.S. to demand Canadians' passports
? ? ?By COLIN PERKEL
? ?TORONTO (CP) ? Canadians will soon require a passport to enter the United States as Washington pushes forward with a controversial homeland security measure that critics fear could choke off tourist traffic from both sides of the border.
The new rules, announced Tuesday by the U.S. State Department in Washington, will also require Americans to show a passport to border officials upon their return home ? and could prove disastrous for impromptu cross-border travel, observers warn.
?It?s going to be the casual visitor, the spontaneous visitor, the ordinary citizen who will be injured by this,? former U.S. congressman John Lafalce said from Buffalo, N.Y., a short drive from the busy Peace Bridge border crossing at Fort Erie, Ont.
?This will significantly reduce the amount of traffic going over our bridges and through our tunnels. This is something that was not very well thought out at all.?
Tuesday?s announcement prompted Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan to suggest Ottawa might respond in kind by requiring American visitors to Canada to show their passports ? largely a moot point, considering the U.S. rules would require its own citizens to carry a passport whenever they leave the country.
?We will review our requirements for American citizens, and we?re going to do that in collaboration with the United States,? McLellan said outside the House of Commons.
?There?s no point in either of us going off in a direction without working together to determine how best we can facilitate the flow ? a free flow ? and movement of low-risk individuals.?
The new American rules are to be phased in over the next couple of years, putting an end to the long-standing Canadian practice of flashing a driver?s licence or birth certificate at immigration officials.
By the end of this year, Canadians will need a passport or other ?secure document? to travel by air or sea to destinations in the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central or South America if the trip includes a U.S. stopover.
By the end of next year, the requirement will apply to all air and sea travel from Canada to the United States, and to all travellers, including those crossing the border on land, by the end of 2007.
The tighter measures are a consequence of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and the country?s effort to screen out ?people who want to come in to hurt us,? said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The two countries have already set up programs that allow pre-screened, low-risk business travellers and other frequent border-crossers to hold so-called ?secure documents? that allow expedited border crossings.
Beyond those, a passport will be the only option for Canadians looking to enter the United States. ?
Tuesday?s announcement prompted Canadian tourism officials to call on both Ottawa and Washington to mount intensive education campaigns about the new measures ? and to aim them at casual American travellers in particular.
?It?s the rubber-tire traffic, the short-haul travellers where we really have to make sure they?re aware of what is necessary,? said Patrick Gedge, CEO of Niagara Economic and Tourism Corp. in Thorold, Ont.
The U.S. plan, enshrined in legislation in December, has been under intense fire because of its impact on millions of people.
Critics argue it will end the ?historic relationship? between Canada and the U.S. in which casual cross-border travel ? be it to visit friends or family, take in a movie, or visit a tourist spot ? has long been a way of life.
They say it creates a ?double border? within North America, rather than a single perimeter such as the one around the European Union.
Lafalce, an adviser to the Washington-based Canadian-American Business Council, warned the measures will be ?counterproductive? and stem from the lingering but misguided belief that some of the Sept. 11 terrorists entered the U.S. from Canada.
?There?s going to be a diversion of our time, attention, resources, energy, personnel (and) money from much more productive ways of combating terrorism,? said Lafalce.
Dr FF