kevin_standlee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevin_standlee) wrote2013-05-29 07:52 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2013-05-29 07:52 pm
Whew, Canada
I am quite relieved to hear that Cheryl Morgan has made it to Toronto safely, not having been denied boarding to her Heathrow-Toronto flight nor refused entry to Canada for a business trip. At least for now, the fact that a foolish confusion between two US agencies (neither of which will acknowledge the error or make the slightest move toward correcting it) resulted in Cheryl being denied entry to the USA has not also led to her being banned from Canada.
If you think the one shouldn't follow from the other, remember that the USA has asserted the right to unilaterally decide who gets to board flights to Canada, Mexico, and nations of the Caribbean. They did this not by a country-to-country agreement, but by simply telling every airline that flies to the USA that they either do what the USA tells them (even on flights not crossing US airspace at all) or else they'll see their US landing rights revoked. So if British Airways wants to keep serving New York, Chicago, and London, they have to give the USA access to their passenger lists to Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, and give the USA an unappealable right to veto any passenger on those flights. I wonder what the US reaction would be if the EU insisted that they be given the reciprocal right to determine United, American, and Delta's passenger lists out of US airports to Europe?
I used to consider the USA the "good guys." Not any more. My own country disappoints me in its ongoing insistence — regardless of who is the elected leader — that there is one set of rules for the USA and another for everyone else. And they wonder why we're hated and distrusted by so many people?
If you think the one shouldn't follow from the other, remember that the USA has asserted the right to unilaterally decide who gets to board flights to Canada, Mexico, and nations of the Caribbean. They did this not by a country-to-country agreement, but by simply telling every airline that flies to the USA that they either do what the USA tells them (even on flights not crossing US airspace at all) or else they'll see their US landing rights revoked. So if British Airways wants to keep serving New York, Chicago, and London, they have to give the USA access to their passenger lists to Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, and give the USA an unappealable right to veto any passenger on those flights. I wonder what the US reaction would be if the EU insisted that they be given the reciprocal right to determine United, American, and Delta's passenger lists out of US airports to Europe?
I used to consider the USA the "good guys." Not any more. My own country disappoints me in its ongoing insistence — regardless of who is the elected leader — that there is one set of rules for the USA and another for everyone else. And they wonder why we're hated and distrusted by so many people?