General

Odd Amigo Out

Canada, Harper under pressure over Mexican visa requirements

On the eve of the fifth annual North American summit, Stephen Harper defended his government’s decision to impose visa requirements on Mexican tourists. The Toronto Star reports that before heading into a one-on-one meeting with Mexican president Felipe Calderon, Harper blamed the need for stringent new entry requirements for Mexican nationals on the current refugee system, “which encourages bogus claimants,” forcing the government to spend “an enormous amount of money” to contend with the resulting flood of applications. According to the prime minister, it’s up to Parliament to “deal with the problem” in order for Ottawa to drop the new requirements. Meanwhile, swine flu and trade are expected to dominate the leaders’ agenda during closed-door meetings today. According to CanWest News, the three are expected to come out with a joint communique “stressing their shared commitment to keep a predicted resurgence in the H1N1 virus this autumn as limited as possible.”

Toronto Star

Ottawa Citizen

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