Sarah Bridge reports:
More than a dozen Canadians have told the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto within the past year that they were blocked from entering the United States after their records of mental illness were shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Lois Kamenitz, 65, of Toronto contacted the office last fall, after U.S. customs officials at Pearson International Airport prevented her from boarding a flight to Los Angeles on the basis of her suicide attempt four years earlier.
Read more on CBCnews.
I am confused and concerned because most of my living family is in Canada. Do I have to worry about the state of their mental health five years previously before I extend an invitation to visit the States? And does this work the same way if one of my cousins invites me to the True North? Are my medical records now public information that border folks need? What happened to doctor/patient confidentiality. These rulings will lead more people to NOT seek help if they now have to worry about travel issues during periods of stress. This truly is dumb.
This is not an issue of doctor-patient confidentiality. Partly, it’s an issue of emergency 911 system or police calls being retained in databases which are then shared outside of the country. I doubt someone calling 911 in an emergency will think, “Wait… I may not be able to travel to the U.S. in the future if the nature of this call is shared with U.S. border agents,” but I do think it’s a needless and harmful erosion of privacy and that people are being needlessly restricted from travel for mental health problems that affect 15% of more of any populace.