Guess who will pay for Trudeau’s gaffe?
A CRANKY UNITED STATES CAN MAKE LIFE MORE DIFFICULT FOR US . — SOUPCOFF
It is a legitimate consideration that Justin Trudeau getting caught on camera apparently gossiping about Donald Trump with Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson could be harmful for Canada, Trump not being known for his measured reactions to perceived slights. And while I concur with Trudeau that, generally speaking, Canada’s relationship with the United States remains extremely strong ( and really what else could Trudeau say, the evidence of his fun- poking at the U. S. president plain for all to see, and being discovered sniggering at the back of the class never the best look on anyone), it’s not an exaggeration to imagine that Trudeau’s inability to guard his derision of Trump in public might affect real Canadians.
Everything is relative and we needn’t expect a repeat of the War of 1812. But there are so many subtle ways in which a cranky United States can make life more difficult for us, even without any formal policy changes.
What I see in the news today ( aside from Trudeau, Macron and Johnson’s Mean Girls moment) is that the United States has doubled the number of five-year bans it has issued on travellers trying to enter the country by land from Canada. These are discretionary decisions. U. S. border officers make them and they’re not subject to official appeal — they are known as expedited removals, which means you don’t get a hearing, and trying to get a waiver after the fact takes lawyers and, even worse, lawyers’ fees.
It is these sorts of interactions — mundane and minor to everyone but the affected travellers — that can take on a whole different tone when tension exists between the administrations of neighbouring countries, a slight tendency to withhold the benefit of the doubt creeping in when U. S. authorities must make a choice about a Canadian. (It’s worth noting that borders are the worst when it comes to being subject to the whims and foibles of individual agents, regardless of nationality, so this is not necessarily evidence of a distinctively poor American setup.)
It’s not clear why expedited removals are up. This surge has already happened, so we can’t blame it on Trudeau’s loose lips.
The CBC has reported that “several lawyers told ( us) they believe U. S. President Donald Trump’s tough stance on immigration may be influencing U. S. border officers along the northern border.” That could be it. Or maybe travellers trying to enter the United States from Canada have just been especially nefarious lately, hence the choice to not just turn them away from the border but to issue a ban on their coming back in the foreseeable future. I’d guess not, but the point is we’ll never know.
It’s those “we’ ll never know” areas where Trudeau being unnecessarily undiplomatic about Trump could come back to haunt us. That “us” doesn’t mean Justin Trudeau, who will happily go on about his business probably a little chuffed to have been called two- faced by a buffoon he considers beneath him, is part of the problem.
The “us” who will see the effects of any bad feeling Trudeau has created are Canadians with no say in any of this, such as the 23- year- old public- interest lawyer trying to start her career in Washington, D.C., because she hasn’t been able to find an articling position in Canada after spending thousands of dollars on her Canadian law degree — and who has a legitimate claim for a NAFTA work visa but encounters a U.S. border officer who isn’t inclined to hear her out.
I know no one feels sorry for lawyers, but having been one whose entire professional future at a new dream job in constitutional law in D.C. depended on that one guy manning the U. S. customs desk in the Vancouver airport when I crossed back into the United States after a vacation in B.C., I can tell you that there are situations in which young lawyers are pretty powerless. (OK, bring on the privilege emails.)
Regardless of whether it’s the Canadian mother who wants to help care for her pregnant daughter on bedrest in Buffalo or the Canadian environmental activist who is trying to volunteer his services for a cleanwater fundraising campaign in Colorado, the folks who will potentially feel the sting of Trudeau’s casual cattiness are those who can least afford to and who will feel it in life-altering ways.
It must have been gratifying to joke about Trump behind his back. We all stoop to this brand of unkind pettiness at times because it feels good, at least in the moment. It’s just that when you’re the leader of an entire country, you would do well to work a little harder to resist that inconsiderate urge.