The Trudeau government says it has received assurances that Canadian passport holders will not be caught up in an American travel ban that has barred citizens of seven countries from entering the United States. This apparently includes people who are dual citizens of the seven largely Muslim countries from which immigration to the US is temporarily banned. An email from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office late Saturday said the U.S. has given assurances that Canadians with dual citizenship will not be turned away at the border. It was widely reported earlier that the new US “extreme vetting” rules for citizens of certain Muslim countries applies to Canadians who hold dual citizenship in those lands and would bar them from the US. The realization of this caused Canada to inquire about just what in meant in full. The countries whose citizens are banned for 90 days are Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Libya. Canada is among the most generous of countries in permitting dual citizenship, a function of its enormous land mass and quite small population. In the US and across the world, people were confused and in some cases very concerned. They arrived in the US only to be interned or sent back to their starting country. Some were on board a plane when the order was signed.
