NDP pushes for agreement with U.S. to prevent lifetime travel bans once pot is legal

Frankly, I’m baffled that the Liberals have not had the foresight to anticipate this problem and begin dealing with this now'

A U.S.-Canada border crossing.File

 

Maura Forrest

 

The NDP wants the federal government to negotiate an arrangement with the United States that would ensure Canadians won’t be turned back at the border if they admit to having used cannabis once the drug becomes legal in July 2018.

“Frankly, I’m baffled that the Liberals have not had the foresight to anticipate this problem and begin dealing with this now,” said NDP health critic Don Davies during a press conference Thursday. “Without such an agreement, Canadians will be put in a terrible position of having to either lie to border officials or risk being denied entry.”

Davies said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should raise the issue directly with the Trump administration, and said he “wouldn’t be opposed” to it being part of NAFTA negotiations.

Though some states have legalized cannabis, the drug remains illegal under federal law in the U.S. If Canadians admit to having consumed marijuana to a border guard, they risk being banned for life and having to apply for special waivers to travel south of the border. If they lie and are caught, they also face a lifetime ban.

An official in Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office told the Post that what happens now at the border isn’t analogous to what may happen once marijuana is legalized, because Canadians who admit to having consumed the drug will no longer be admitting to a crime. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything will change, as U.S. border guards have complete discretion over who gets to enter the country.

The official said there is an ongoing conversation with the U.S. government about Canada’s plan to legalize cannabis.

Earlier this week, Liberal MP Bill Blair told reporters the government is well aware of concerns about crossing the border once marijuana is legalized, but wouldn’t confirm whether any agreement will be in place by the Liberals’ July 1, 2018 deadline for legalizing pot.

“Many of those cross-border jurisdictional issues are already issues that people question and need to be resolved, and so we’re working hard on that,” he said. “I don’t have all the answers today.”
 

Kathy Thompson, an assistant deputy minister in the Department of Public Safety, said that Canadians “will be reminded that every country has the right to determine admissibility and they will be counselled on responding truthfully to any questions asked by border officials,” in answer to a question from Davies about border concerns during House of Commons health committee hearings on Monday.

It’s unclear how many Canadians have been banned from the U.S. for marijuana use. On Tuesday, Sam Kamin, a professor of marijuana law and policy at the University of Denver in Colorado, told the health committee he’s heard of anecdotal cases, but border guards do use their discretion.

“My sense is that those people are excludable, but not always excluded,” he said.
Still, Davies insisted that if the government doesn’t take action now, “you’re going to see hundreds of thousands of Canadians denied entry to the United States because they admitted to using cannabis.”

In September 2016, before the last American election, Goodale told the CBC that the U.S. practice of imposing lifetime bans on pot users was a “ridiculous situation” and said the government would push to “ensure that Canadians are treated properly.”

But on Thursday, Davies said the fact that the issue hasn’t been resolved is one of a number of “gaping holes” in the Liberal policy. Others include the new cannabis bill’s failure to regulate edible cannabis products and the lack of a plan to pardon people who’ve been convicted of pot possession, he said.

“If there’s not some sort of change or agreement made between the two countries, then absolutely there are going to be significant problems on July 2.”