Voyageur 48
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Canucks Need Permission to Visit the U.K.
Starting today, Canadians can't board a flight to the United Kingdom without an Electronic Travel Authorization. The U.K. government's new ETA system went live on February 25, covering visitors from 85 countries - including Canada, the U.S., and EU nations - who previously didn't need any pre-travel approval.
The application costs £10, takes a few minutes through the U.K.'s app or website, and is valid for two years. You'll need to scan your passport and your face, answer some screening questions, and most people get approved within minutes. Each traveller needs their own, including kids (though children under nine skip the face scan).
The Government of Canada put out a travel advisory earlier this month warning that without an approved ETA, you won't be allowed to board. That includes transit passengers who aren't even leaving the airport. "No permission, no travel" is how U.K. Migration Minister Mike Tapp put it. If you have a trip to London coming up, get the app downloaded before you get to the gate.
Read more: Daily Hive
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Canada's Immigration Minister Has Gone Quiet at the Worst Possible Time
NEXUS lanes are shut down at Canadian airports. The U.S. government shutdown has frozen Global Entry. Express Entry just got its biggest overhaul in years, with new military and transport categories nobody has explained properly yet. And the person in charge of Canada's immigration file is, by most accounts, nowhere to be found.
CBC reports that Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab has effectively vanished from public view since being sworn in last May. Six community organizations told CBC they can't get a meeting. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress managed one videoconference last spring and has been trying to get a follow-up ever since - they're still pushing for a permanent residency pathway for Ukrainians who fled the war. Stephan Reichhold, who runs Quebec's largest refugee services coalition, said he's worked with 14 immigration ministers and has never had one refuse to speak with him.
Her committee appearances haven't inspired confidence either. In October she struggled to answer a basic question about refugee processing times and kept deferring to civil servants beside her. "Madam minister, why won't you answer me?" snapped Bloc MP Claude DeBellefeuille. "It's your power." When CBC asked Diab for an interview, she declined and didn't provide a written response.
Read more: CBC News