Minor U.S. criminals may now be allowed into Canada

By Duane Hicks
Fort Frances Times

Starting March 1st, Americans with a criminal record may be less likely to be turned back at the border after a new policy took effect on a trial basis.
Under the Tourism Facilitation Action Plan, the federal government has “widened the discretionary capacity of the border guard to waive a minor criminal infraction, including a DUI,” Kenora MP Greg Rickford said this morning, noting in Canada, impaired driving isn’t necessarily a minor criminal infraction but it is for purposes of U.S. law.
U.S. tourists with a single indictable offence in their criminal histories, for which they served less than six months in jail, may be allowed a one-time waiver if the Canada Border Services Agency officer so decides.
“Anything beyond that, you require the issuance of a temporary resident permit [TRP] rehabilitation document and fee,” said Rickford.
“If you have more than one minor offence, you will still require the TRP documents and the fee.
“There is no dispute about that at all­—we’re talking about one time, one offence,” he explained.
Rickford reiterated it’s a one-time waiver, adding “rehabilitation” through the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration is the long-term solution for tourists with criminal records.
“You can’t come back in the same year or the same decade or anything,” he stressed. “It’s on record.
“The guard may have given you a waiver and for now, until we’ve given you a long-term solution, you will be required to have your documents in order and pay the fee if you come back to Canada at all.”
Rickford urged those applicable to undergo the rehabilitation process, but added the new policy “is an important small and short-term step to get out from underneath some of those scenarios, statistically and really, posing problems for people coming across the border.”
Rickford said he fully respects and appreciates the important work CBSA officers do, particularly in Fort Frances.
“This is meant to give them wider discretion on this particular issue, but it still rests with them,” he stressed.
“We want to make sure border guards continue to . . . act in the best public safety interests of Canadians,” added Rickford.
“We’re not here to interfere with that, but we are here to pose a very practical solution that I think, so far, has been very well-received.”
As noted, the interim policy took effect today and will be in effect for an indeterminate amount of time.
“There is no date,” said Rickford. “What this is, by our own acknowledgment, is a temporary solution.
“It’s temporary for a couple of important reasons,” he noted. “First of all, we want to see how does it work? Is it working?
“And at the end of the season, we’re going to be hosting some roundtables across Northwestern Ontario and we’re going to be getting the responses from camp owners.
“The second and, I think, important reason is there’s a bilateral implication here,” added Rickford.
“As part of the Tourism Facilitation Action Plan flows from the perimeter agreement made by President Obama and Prime Minister Harper, we ultimately want to, in time, have effectively very similar, if not the same, policies on a host of items with respect to persons crossing the border—some consistency, some certainty,” he remarked.
He said he gets Canadians with minor criminal infractions visiting his constituency office who want help crossing the border into the U.S.
Rickford has played a role in bringing attention to the issue on behalf of regional tourism operators over the past three years, calling it “one of the busiest and most voluminous files I have.”
“It’s a tricky issue,” he admitted. “It’s taken us a couple of years to come up with something because we’re striking a couple of important balances here.
“We’re a government that doesn’t condone these kinds of activities, but we do have a mechanism in our own system, as do our friends in the United States, that for minor criminal infractions, you can be rehabilitated across the border for the purpose of crossing the border,” Rickford explained.
“We have worked with camp owners at the beginning of the last couple of seasons, saying, ‘Hey, if you’ve got a big group coming up, let them know about our website. We’ve got a link there that will help them navigate trough Citizenship and Immigration.’
“We can even assist them with their case personally because, of course, it’s confidential, and that’s often at the crux of this,” he added.
“Really what these are about is someone not wanting to disclose a minor criminal infraction, in many cases because of the group they’re with,” Rickford reasoned.
“You come with your CEO and a couple other bigwigs and ‘Oh, and by the way, you did something when you were 20, you’re 44 now. . . .
“You’ve got that little lesion from your absent-minded 20s.”