New U.S. Border Security Measures May Affect U.S.-Canada Relations

The U.S. government’s tough new security measures at its international borders are sending a strong message to Canada, says Dr. Gordon Smith, director of UVic’s Centre for Global Studies and a former Canadian deputy minister of foreign affairs. “If we don’t assure the U.S. we have the means and the will to control our borders, our relationship will suffer,” says Smith. “The U.S. will do what it takes to assure its security. And with our dependence on open access to the U.S. for goods and people, we must ensure that we are not a route for terrorists to take into the U.S. or else we shall find the border with our neighbour to the south increasingly difficult to cross.” Smith’s remarks are in response to U.S. Customs agents’ new ability to search an FBI database for a person’s criminal past or terrorist links. This is the first time a country has implemented such a wide-scale identification system for foreign travelers.

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