This is wrong on so many levels and seem to be another example of how the US is rapidly losing what is left of its moral compass. Thank you Homeland Insecurity.
Short version: Lady in Toronto goes to airport to fly to New York, from where she will head to a 10 day Caribbean cruise. US border agent (in Toronto because the US has agents to pre clear) refuses her entry because of past depression. The lady is a paraplegic, in a wheel chair. It appears that SOMEHOW the US had access to her private and personal medical records, and used them as a basis to deny entry.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Link - http://www.thestar.com/...
“I was turned away, I was told, because I had a hospitalization in the summer of 2012 for clinical depression,’’ said Richardson, who is a paraplegic and set up her cruise in collaboration with a March of Dimes group of about 12 others.
The Weston woman was told by the U.S. agent she would have to get “medical clearance’’ and be examined by one of only three doctors in Toronto whose assessments are accepted by Homeland Security. She was given their names and told a call to her psychiatrist “would not suffice.’’
At the time, Richardson said, she was so shocked and devastated by what was going on, she wasn’t thinking about how U.S. authorities could access her supposedly private medical information.
So:
How does the US get access to her private medical records?
Why is the US "afraid" of a paraplegic lady in a wheel chair?
On a personal note. I have visited many countries around the world, including dictatorships and communist countries, but I have to say my least favourite experiences have been with US customs/border agents.
Obviously every country has the right to police its own borders, and so, so be it. BUT I also have the right to try and avoid travelling to or through the US at all costs (though unfortunately not always possible), and I do.
It is all pretty sad for those of us watching from the outside.