By Clare Ogilvie
Some U.S. visitors are choosing
not to book vacations to Whistler out of fear of being turned around at the
border for old criminal convictions.
“Within the last three weeks I
know of four people who have decided not to go to Whistler and that is a big
deal,” said San Francisco criminal lawyer Chris Cannon.
“It’s very bad news. If there is
uncertainty about whether you are going to get into Whistler are you going to
take your wife and kids there or are you going to take them to Vail?
“I think this is really going to
be a problem and particularly a problem for Whistler. The kind of clientele
that goes to Whistler, the clientele that goes heli-skiing, I would bet that
there is a substantial amount of those people who have problems.”
Some of Cannon’s clients own
property in Whistler and are now wondering what to do, he said.
At the root of the problem is
the increase in access to personal information now available to border
officials. New Canadian programs have made it possible for Canadian border
guards to get airline manifestos before the plane lands so that checks can be
done ahead of time.
In days gone by background
checks were done on a more ad hoc basis.
So while the laws that govern
who may or may not enter Canada have not changed, the access to information
about travellers is far more extensive now than it was pre-9/11. Decades-old
convictions for offences such as marijuana possession or petty theft have in
some cases led to Americans being turned back at the border.
An article recently ran in the
San Francisco Chronicle on the issue and Cannon said he has been inundated with
calls from people who are now so worried they are not travelling.
But U.S. travel industry
experts, the Canadian Border Services Agency, and B.C. tourism officials, while
concerned, say there is nothing to suggest closer scrutiny of travellers is
putting a damper on the 95 million people who come to Canada each year.
Said Tourism Whistler’s Michele
Comeau-Thompson, in an e-mailed response: “Tourism Whistler does not have any
concerns regarding the federal regulations that are enforced by
the Canada Border Services Agency.”
Chris Williams of the CBSA said
the agency works hard to balance the issues of security against the important
role tourism plays in Canada. And, he said, to date statistics don’t show that
new security measures are resulting in an increasing number of inadmissible
people.
“Our statistics aren’t showing
any noticeable difference in the number of people who are denied access (since
9/11),” said Williams.
He added, the rules governing
who is admissible and who is not have not changed in decades.
“I want people to understand
there is nothing new here,” he said. “The vast majority of Canadians and
Americans are traveling across the border freely. As long as they have the
right documentation, they should have no problems at all.”
Anyone who is concerned can
contact a Canadian embassy or High Commission and apply for a “Minister’s
Approval of Rehabilitation” which may wipe their record clean.
Rick Webster, vice president of
government affairs for the U.S.’s Travel Industry Association said his group
has heard nothing from his members to suggest this is a problem, adding: “We
don’t believe there is any stepped up enforcement of Canadian laws.”
According to information from
the CBSA, visitors are inadmissible if they have been convicted of offences
such as shoplifting, theft, assault, dangerous driving, unauthorized possession
of a firearm, DUI, drug possession, and some others.
Williams said border guards look
at the travelers on a case-by-case basis.
Said Paul Vallee of Tourism
Vancouver: “I wouldn’t say we are getting any more (reports of it) than we have
in the past, but certainly if it became more of an issue definitely we would be
concerned about it.”
There have been high-level
meetings with customs officials, said Vallee, and “they understand the need
between expediting the low risk traveler and low risk goods and ensuring that
they are maintaining high level security.”
Christopher Nicolson of Sunpeaks
has not heard of any similar cases and said top of mind for most resorts are
the issues of the GST rebate, and the general hassle factor at borders and
airports.
“This certainly impacts the
industry in a much larger way than the number of people with misdemeanor
convictions from the past,” he said.