Canadian Visa Source of Frustration for Mexicans Lee Berthiaume - Postmedia News
go to original May 23, 2013

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (right) shakes hands with with Mexican president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, November 28, 2012. (The Canadian Press/Fred Chartrand)

Canadian and Mexican officials over the past few months have been trying to downplay the significance of Canada’s decision to slap visa requirements on visitors from Mexico in 2009, saying the impact has been negligible and that they will be removed in due course.

Apparently not all Mexicans agree.

Mexican Congressman Agustin Barrios Gomez teamed up with Carlo Dade, a University of Ottawa senior fellow and former executive director of the old Canadian Foundation for the Americas, to write this article for the Mexican daily newspaper Excélsior, which essentially blasts Canada for maintaining the visa requirements.

The two men argue that the original argument for imposing the requirements — to prevent a flood of what Immigration Minister Jason Kenney likes to describe as “bogus” asylum seekers — has been rendered moot following recent changes to Canada’s refugee system.

They also note that while Canadian officials have also expressed concern about allowing criminal threats free flow into Canada, there are no visa requirements for U.S. travellers even though many of their cities have higher crime rates than Mexico.

Read the rest at Canada.com

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