Canadians with mental illnesses denied U.S. entry

[The Northerner]

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.

Kamenitz says she was stopped at customs after showing her passport and asked to go to a secondary screening. There, a Customs and Border Protection officer told Kamenitz that he had information that police had attended her home in 2006.

“I was really perturbed,” Kamenitz says. “I couldn’t figure out what he meant. And then it dawned on me that he was referring to the 911 call my partner made when I attempted suicide.”

Kamenitz says she asked the officer how he had obtained her medical records.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/09/08/f-border-mental-health-privacy.html

[DrunkenBoat]

1. That's very interesting. I guess the take-away point is, don't go to the doctor if you have

emotional/mental issues. It seems that anyone with a psych history (which would include prescriptions for anti-depressants) is fair game.

[nenagh]

6. The info didn't come from her physician, but apparently..

from the police record of her 911 call after she attempted suicide.

Just hard to believe.. but medical records of the physician were not compromised, that I can see on reading the link.

[DrunkenBoat]

9. It's coming.

[fascisthunter]

2. that's because we have plenty already...

running our government and working on Wall Street. None of which get therapy or the right medication, nor do they wish to get help for themselves as long as they gain power and money, all is ok.

[ClarkUSA]

3. Goes 2 ways. You can be blocked from Canada for a laundry list of minor offenses like shoplifting.

Try emigrating there if you have a documented chronic illness and see what happens. Canada blocked a family from Great Britain recently because one of the kids had a chronic disease. It was a story headline in Brit papers which outraged readers over there.

[KamaAina]

7. Having a mental illness is not an "offense".

We don't even deny entry to people with HIV anymore, thanks to Obama. Now he needs to do something about this!

[ClarkUSA]

8. Neither is having a chronic illness but Canada will refuse you entry for that.

Same difference. Like I said, it goes both ways. Many countries have far stricter immigration policies than either the U.S. or Canada, however.

[KamaAina]

10. I believe they would refuse you landed immigrant status, not mere entry

if they didn't, the giant sucking sound of sick Americans heading North for universal health care would drown out Niagara Falls.

[ClarkUSA]

11. They recently refused a British family's child entry into Canada because she had a chronic illness.

I read a story in a British paper about it months ago.

<< if they didn't, the giant sucking sound of sick Americans heading North for universal health care would drown out Niagara Falls >>

In order to get Canadian health care, you have to be a landed immigrant. I can't just show up in Canada and demand health care if I became ill. I have a close friend who emigrated from Canada to the U.S. and he lost his landed immigrant status and his health care benefits with it. In order to become a landed immigrant, you have to get enough "points" (bring lots of cash, start a business, etc.).

[treestar]

4. Really over doing it there

I can understand it in some cases, but really, this kind of thing - if it was recent and involved harming others, that would be different, but this is ridiculous.

[KamaAina]

5. This is actually written into U.S. law!

Brad Benson from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says medical records aren't shared between countries. However, "if you have an arrest record, Canada would share that with us," he says.

If a police encounter includes information about mental health, Benson says front-line officers can use it.

"Mental illness is actually under our law as a reason that you may not get admitted," he says. "The issue is always going to be: could someone be a danger to someone ?"

:wtf: :grr: :banghead: :argh: :nuke:

Oh yes, this tidbit points out why national databases are a bad idea:

According to diplomatic cables released earlier this year by WikiLeaks, any information entered into the national Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database is accessible to American authorities.

Local police officers take notes whenever they apprehend an individual or respond to a 911 call, and some of this information is then entered into the CPIC database, says Stylianos. He says that occasionally this can include non-violent mental health incidents in which police are involved.

In Kamenitz’s case, this could explain how U.S. officials had a record of the police response to the 911 call her partner made in 2006, after Kamenitz took an overdose of pills.

If we had a database like that, I'd be in it, for a similar reason. :scared: