Canadian Ellen Richardson says she was denied access to the United States by U.S. Customs at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport because of a 2012 hospitalization for depression, according to a Toronto Star newspaper report.
Richardson was on her way to a 10-day Caribbean cruise, when she was told by a U.S. agent at the airport she could not fly to New York and would have to get “medical clearance’’ to be allowed into the United States.
“I was turned away, I was told, because I had a hospitalization in the summer of 2012 for clinical depression,’’ she told Toronto Star reporter Valerie Hauch.
The Star quotes Richardson’s Member of Parliament Mike Sullivan as saying what has happened to his constituent is “enormously troubling. . . . How did U.S. agents get her personal medical information?…We’re very concerned if Canadians’ personal medical information is being communicated to U.S. authorities.’’’
More information:
Toronto Star – Disabled woman denied entry to U.S. after agent cites supposedly private medical details – here
CBC News – Canadian woman refused U.S. entry because of depression – here
CBC News from 2011 – Canadians with mental illnesses denied U.S. entry – here
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