An old story has resurfaced. It is made more piquant by the addition of Donald Trump to the mix but it is old nonetheless.
It is about how much sovereign control over their country Canadians are willing to give up in exchange for easier access to the United States.
The latest version of this story is the controversy over a new Canada-U. S. agreement governing the pre-clearance of travellers passing through select airports and rail hubs.
Simply put, it would modify the rules that allow U.S.-bound travellers to clear American customs in Canada and vice versa.
The new version, embodied in federal Bill C-23, also adds two rail hubs and two additional airports to the eight sites in Canada where pre-clearance already takes place.
But that’s not the controversial part. What have spooked some, including New Democrat MPs, are the new powers given U.S. border agents operating in Canada.
They would be granted the right to detain for an unspecified amount of time travellers who have entered the pre-clearance area and then changed their minds, the power to conduct strip searches in certain situations and the potential authority to carry arms.
American border officials would also be exempt from some aspects of the Criminal Code and Firearms Act.
Canadian border agents operating in pre-clearance areas in the U.S. would have equivalent powers.
When all of this was first announced last year, Barack Obama was still U.S. president and critics were sparse.
Most reportage at the time focused on the convenience of being able to preclear U.S. customs at two more airports — Quebec City’s Jean Lesage and Toronto’s Billy Bishop.
“Canadians to soon have easier access to U.S.” was The Star’s headline. It was fairly Casinovale typical. But with Trump’s ascent to the U.S. presidency, all of this changed.
Now everything to do with the U.S. is being viewed in light of a president seen by many Canadians as erratic and hostile to foreigners.
On Tuesday in the Commons, the New Democrats moved an amendment to Bill C-23 that would effectively kill the new arrangement.
The party’s public safety critic, Matthew Dube, cited the “climate of uncertainty at the border” caused by the “discriminatory policies” of Trump.
But if there are flaws in the new arrangement (and I think there are) they predate Trump. Since 9/11, successive Canadian governments have tried to persuade the Americans that a wide-open border between Canada and the U.S. need not be insecure.
Even Ottawa’s decision to take full part in the Afghan War was designed, in part, to keep the Canada-U. S. border open to traffic.
The Canadian idea was to create a common security perimeter around North America in exchange for easier movement across the Canada-U. S. frontier.
The American idea, however, was to have both: a common security perimeter around North America and a tightened regime at the Canada-U. S. frontier.
Armed U.S. law officers would operate alongside Canadian police on the Canadian side of the border. U.S. drones would undertake surveillance along it.
Last summer Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government quietly agreed to share biographical and other data on Canadians travelling overland to the U.S. — and vice versa.
Not all of this has worked out exactly as planned. The joint policing idea, for example, has been more difficult to implement than expected.
But that is what all of this is about. It is not about Trump. It is not driven by his personal biases. Rather, this is about a long-standing American demand for tighter security on its northern border.
Washington could have agreed to expand the number of pre-clearance sites under the old rules. It didn’t.
Instead, it said to Ottawa: If you want easier access, you have to give up something; you have to give American border officers more authority in Canada. You have to let them detain people they think should be detained and do strip searches if necessary. You have to let them carry — and use — weapons if their Canadian counterparts are similarly armed.
And Ottawa agreed. Because more than anything, it wants to keep that border as wide open as possible.
Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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