Westmount High School is not going to Washington, D. C. for the annual graduation trip this year.
Instead, they’ll go to Toronto and Niagara Falls, in solidarity with the whole graduating class.
In anticipation that some of the Muslim students, or students with backgrounds from one of the currently banned countries in the United States, may get hassled or refused at the border, the class decided it was more important to be together.
“The best way to sum up their reaction would be to say, either the whole family goes or none of us go,” Michael Cristofaro the school’s principal, told CBC News in an email.
Last Sunday, March 5th, Montrealer Manpreet Kooner was turned away at the Vermont border when trying to go to a spa in the United States.
The young woman, who was born in Canada, therefore a Canadian citizen, was told she would need an immigrant visa to enter.
Kooner is understood to be the third person holding a Canadian passport to have been turned away at the U.S. border in recent weeks. All three have been visible minorities; two were Muslim.
The developing trend has attracted the attention of legislators on both sides of the border.
Canada’s Public Security Minister Ralph Goodale has already raised the issue with his American counterpart, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.
Business owners in Burlington, Vermont are expressing concern as the border towns depend on Canadian consumers to prosper.
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