Border concerns prompt Girl Guides to suspend trips to U.S.
Girl Guides of Canada is cancelling any new trips to the United States, citing concerns that some members could be turned away at the border.
“It also has to do with safety,” Sarah Kiriliuk, the organization’s national manager of marketing and communication, said Monday.
“We want to make sure that if our girls are travelling that they are not going to be in a risky or unsafe situation. . . . We can’t leave a girl behind.”
The organization, which has 70,000 girls and 20,000 women who are volunteer guiders, said it decided to cancel future travel because of the uncertainty over whether all of its members would be allowed to cross into the United States. President Donald Trump recently introduced a travel ban that affects would-be visitors and immigrants to the U.S. from six Muslim-majority countries who do not hold a valid U.S. visa.
“We realize we had to stand by our organizational commitment of inclusivity and diversity,” Kiriliuk said. “We talk the talk, we try and walk the walk. We’re an inclusive and a diverse organization and this is just an extension of that.”
“While the United States is a frequent destination for guiding trips, the ability of all our members to equally enter this country is currently uncertain,” said a statement from the organization.
Girl Guides of Canada will not be approving any new travel to the U.S. until further notice, the statement said. This also applies to any travel that includes a connecting flight through a U.S. airport.
An alternative destination is being sought to a nationally sponsored trip this summer to a camp in California.
“Not being able to cross a border, can you imagine what would happen?” Kiriliuk asked. “A group shows up at the border and one girl can’t go across — that puts everybody in a very difficult situation. So, we want to make sure the girls are safe and that we are extending that inclusivity and diversity to all of our trips.”
“A group shows up at the border and one girl can’t go across — that puts everybody in a very difficult situation.” SARAH KIRILIUK GIRL GUIDES OF CANADA
Most of the Girl Guides’ trips to the U.S. are planned at the regional and local offices, Kiriliuk said. These trips include a wide variety of things such as tourism, history or, sometimes, simply socializing.
Travelling, especially as a young girl with peers and away from parents, teaches independence, she said.
“There’s a really big learning curve for girls in that sense as well — going across the ocean, far away from home,” Kiriliuk said.
If there’s a trip that has been planned and paid for, Kiriliuk said, then the organization is doing a risk assessment on those trips.
“We are not breaching anyone’s confidentiality,” she said.
“The risk assessment will be done within a small circle to assess whether we think that trip can safely go ahead or not.”
The organization is encouraging people to take domestic trips, especially because this year is the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Girl Guides is not the first organiza- tion to suspend trips to the United States.
Several schools and school districts across Canada debated going ahead with trips south of the border following the first executive order issued by Trump in January.
A Winnipeg junior high school cancelled a trip by its track team to Minnesota in January because it wasn’t certain all students would be allowed to cross the border.
The Greater Essex County School Board in southwestern Ontario decided in February to cancel a handful of trips over concerns of safety and equity, while districts in southern Vancouver Island debated whether to ban all U.S. travel or handle each trip on a case-by-case basis.