Canadian Sovereignty: Privacy Rights

Dept: It is bound to be denounced in some quarters here - and already has been as reports of the negotiations emerged - as a sellout of Canadian sovereignty and an un-Canadian infringement on privacy rights for the sake of easing access to U.S. markets, even though in that respect it offers some commendable provisions, according to Montreal Gazette. Canada, it seems, is still living in a pre-9/11 world when it comes to evaluating visa applicants, and in Victorian times when it comes to screening for dangerous diseases and the new Canada-U.S. border agreement to be formally unveiled Wednesday will include, among other measures, enhanced tracking procedures for persons entering or leaving the country by air, land or sea. But our south-of-the-border partners in the deal must also have been smitten with some second thoughts about what they were getting into when they got wind of the latest federal auditor-general's report, which slapped a failing grade on the competence of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canadian Border Services Agency in evaluating people they let into the country. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.