Embassy claims Mexicans are singled out at B.C. borders

[Praxius]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/06/25/bc-mexican-consular-complaint.html

Mexican consular officials in Vancouver claim their citizens are being singled out for unusually tough screening and treatment when they arrive in Canada.

The Mexican Embassy in Ottawa is preparing to send a diplomatic note to the Canadian Border Services Agency, after 80 Mexicans who flew into Vancouver Friday were detained over the weekend, and then sent home Monday. Juan José Salgado, deputy consul general for the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver, said a diplomatic note is just one step below a diplomatic protest.

After repeated requests for a comment on the detainment from the Canadian Border Services Agency, spokesperson Faith St. John said the only person who could speak on the issue was Stockwell Day, the Minister of Public Safety.

In an e-mail, Mélisa Leclerc, a spokesperson for Day, wrote, "for reasons of individual privacy, I cannot discuss publicly individual cases, however I can tell you that all 80 arrived at [Vancouver International Airport] Friday morning and they were refused admission to Canada and were detained over the weekend until we could make arrangements for them to be returned to Mexico on the next flight."

No other information was provided by Canadian government officials.

According to the B.C. Federation of Labour, which represents prison guards, the 45 male Mexicans who were detained were held in isolation at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge, where they were forced to sleep on the gym floor for three nights. The 35 females were also held in isolation at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge.

Salgado said they were detained because border officials suspected them of posing as tourists, who were secretly planning to work illegally in Canada.

Salgado said holding Mexican citizens for three days without giving them access to consular services was a violation of the Vienna Convention, which guarantees foreign nationals access to their embassies or consulates.

 

[missile]

Saldago was right on in his assessment of the Mexicanos. I still think our government should put out a warning notice to any of us thinking of vacationing in that impoverished country as a number of our tourists were robbed there, and even a few murdered.

 

[thomaska]

Well, "gawl lee"! This couldn't possibly have anything to do with about 12 million of them being the US illegally could it?

I mean, its not like they have a propensity for coming and staying anywhere uninvited do they?

 

[MikeyDB]

NAFTA is alive and well......

 

[Praxius]

Well, "gawl lee"! This couldn't possibly have anything to do with about 12 million of them being the US illegally could it?

I mean, its not like they have a propensity for coming and staying anywhere uninvited do they?

Well we already have US officials trying to send them up here through Michigan to pass the problem off to us, so it doesn't suprise me in the slightest.

 

[MikeyDB]

Let me restate this for you...

While Americans (yes some not all...) whine and moan about jobs lost as a result of NAFTA...and Canadians see their national sovereignity usurped by American greed....Mexico where NAFTA was hailed as the means to jobs success and prosperity...remains the feeder-mechanism for illegal immigration into the United States and Canada.... I certainly hope that everyone who hailed NAFTA as the great saviour of economies and incalculable benefit to the average person...understands that this lie was and is a sham.