Hyer denied entry into Mexico

NDP MP Bruce Hyer got bounced from Mexico.

Hyer, who represents Thunder Bay-Superior North, travelled with his wife Margaret earlier this month for a sunny vacation at San Miguel de Allende, but didn’t make it out of the Mexico City airport.

Hyer, it seems, was travelling with a special green passport given to MPs instead of the normal blue one non-governmental Canadians are issued. But because Prime Minister Stephen Harper enacted legislation last year that requires Mexicans wishing to travel to Canada to get visas, the Mexicans responded with new rules of their own.

Canadians travelling on the special green passports now require a visa of their own.

"To my shock and surprise, Mexico has done retaliation for the visas required for Mexican tourists and students and business people coming to Canada, by imposing a requirement for visas of government people going to Mexico," Hyer said, when reached by phone on Thursday morning.

"The Mexicans are too smart to penalize tourists going to Mexico but the hit-back behaviour that they chose to do, unbeknownst to me, was that government diplomats or people with special passports are supposed to have visas ahead of time."

Hyer said there’s no doubt in his mind why he was refused entry into Mexico.
"It was made very clearly to me by the immigration people that they were not very happy with Mr. Harper and his government’s decision to require visas of Mexicans with no notice last summer," Hyer said.

However, he was the first to admit it was his own mistake, and that he should have known the rules before he left the country.

"If I had just grabbed the other passport instead of the special green one, life would be good," Hyer said, still managing to chuckle at the situation. "I was a little undecided. It was mostly a holiday for me, but I also was going to do some work with Mexican government officials and other people interested in climate change," Hyer said.

Although his vacation plans and climate change meetings were kiboshed, Hyer doesn’t plan to hold a grudge against his North American neighbours. He said he will be back, perhaps as soon UN climate change talks scheduled for Cancun in November.

"I’m not mad at the Mexicans. I truly understand why they’ve done what they’ve done and have some empathy of their position. If I were to be critical of anybody, it would be of our own government that has taken a friend in Mexico and turned them into less of a friend," said Hyer, adding that the prime minister seems to be following in the footsteps of former U.S. president George. W. Bush, whose policies he said have alienated countries around the world.

"Canada used to have a wonderful reputation around the world, and our reputation is becoming tarnished in other places, and that’s really unfortunate."