Glen McGregor and Mike Trickey. Ottawa Citizen; Southam
News. National Post. Canda,
September 1, 2001
OTTAWA - The Department of Foreign Affairs says it will protest a recent
U.S. crackdown on Americans who circumvent the U.S. travel ban to Cuba by flying
to the Communist country from Canada.
The get-tough order from the White House to the Treasury Department has
resulted in American customs officers in Canadian airports questioning American
travellers about whether they've been to Cuba. If they have, they face fines as
high as US$55,000.
A retired social worker from Chicago who joined a Canadian bicycling tour in
Cuba recently received notice of a US$7,500 fine from the Treasury Department
after having her passport scrutinized by a U.S. customs officer at Pearson
International in Toronto.
The 1974 Pre-Clearance Treaty permits U.S. customs official to enforce
American rules for entry into the United States.
"In order to do so, they are authorized to apply U.S. laws related only
to the admission of these travellers and their goods," says Foreign Affairs
spokesman Carl Schwenger.
"Other applications of any U.S. law in Canada is not envisaged. We
intend to raise this issue with U.S. authorities."
Bruno Coulome, who runs the Fredericton-based USA Cuba Travel, says many of
his American clients have been intimidated by U.S. customs agents at Canadian
airports. "The clients are really scared."
He says he has seen customs agents watching his clients check in for their
charter flights to Cuba at Montreal's Mirabel Airport.
"Many times in the last month I've seen U.S. customs agents waiting at
the departure counter," said Mr. Coulome, whose company handles Cuba-bound
U.S. customers exclusively. He also thinks customs agents are watching for
Americans arriving on flights from Cuba.
"The strategy they have is they stay at the arrival gate for Havana and
they spot the travellers who walk to the counter of U.S. connecting airlines."
Nancy Chang, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York
City, says there are reports of surveillance in Canadian airports.
Ms. Chang is challenging the constitutionality of the fines on behalf of 400
travellers.
The U.S. customs service denies it uses surveillance operations in Canadian
airports, but won't say how it determines which travellers visited Cuba.
The procedures are "enforcement sensitive" and not discussed, said
customs spokesman Jim Michie.
Mr. Coulome says Americans can protect themselves by asking Cuban customs
officers not to stamp their passports. Cuba allows visitors to enter with a
tourist card and does not require a visa in a passport. He also recommends
travellers not carry cigars or other obviously Cuban souvenirs in their luggage.
Susan Ross, a California lawyer specializing in customs law, says although
she suspects Canadian and U.S. authorities are informally sharing information at
border points, she says most U.S. travellers are caught when they admit they've
been holidaying in Cuba.
"People aren't good liars," she says. "When the agents start
asking questions, people start getting nervous."
Canadian officials deny Canadian immigration or customs officials are giving
their American counterparts any information about Americans returning from Cuba
to international airports with U.S. pre-clearance customs services.
Pre-clearance facilities are in place at airports in Vancouver, Calgary,
Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
The interrogation at Canadian airports is part of a broader crackdown on
Americans who ignore the U.S. government's Trading with the Enemy Act, which has
been in effect since 1962.
President George W. Bush has provided the catalyst for the re-energized
customs efforts, saying the White House was going to get tough again after the
Clinton administration took a more relaxed approach to Americans visiting Cuba.
Between May 4 and July 30, the Treasury Department sent out 443 letters
seeking fines from Americans suspected of travelling to Cuba compared to only 74
letters during the first four months of the year.
Opponents of the crackdown say the U.S. laws smack of the same sort of
totalitarianism that is being fought in Cuba.
"It's repugnant to everything that we as Americans think," says
Democratic congressman Charles Rangel.
"This type of behaviour is the behaviour that you would expect from a
communist dictatorship that wants to keep its people at home."
Ironically, the crackdown comes at the same time the U.S. Congress is
mobilizing a campaign to lift the travel ban.
Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan, who heads to Senate appropriations
sub-committee in charge of Treasury Department funding, says he will seek
measures that would lift the ban when Congress returns to work later this month.
Dorgan is confident a bill lifting the ban will pass the Senate and believes it
has a good chance of getting through the House of Representatives. The
Republican-dominated House voted in July to deny money to the Treasury
Department to enforce the ban.
About 200,000 Americans legally travelled to Cuba last year, with about 60%
of them being Cuban-Americans who are permitted to make annual humanitarian
trips to visit relatives.
The others are from various other categories, such as journalists on
assignment and researchers, who can receive clearance from Washington.
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