Reply #35: oh, by the way -- the US government has been complaining about lax border security for some time [View All]

So ... some of the pressure on Canada to turn back visitors who have criminal records is coming from America itself. Even before Dubya's reign, there were complaints that Canada was letting everybody in, and that this was giving criminals easy access to the States. Now, short of implementing a policy that restricted access from everywhere but the US (in which case other countries would complain about discrimination), it would be difficult to comply with the requests from D.C. that we tighten our security. I believe that some of this began during Reagan's War on Drugs (and possibly even earlier, with Cold War espionage and Vietnam era war resisters).

I am truly sorry that many Americans are legally restricted from entering our country (and earlier posters mentioned that they will not be visiting us on principle, even if they themselves could get personal exemptions). Personally I took great pride in two nations sharing a border that was relatively open.