VANCOUVER—Every single provincial worker, from the premier to retail clerks at government-run liquor stores, could be eligible for a lifetime ban from the United States following cannabis legalization on Oct. 17, according to an American lawyer.

Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer based out of Blaine, Wash., said comments made last week by U.S. Customs and Border Protection official Todd Owen to Politico show that despite the changing face of drug policy in Canada, the attitudes of American law enforcement remain deeply unsympathetic.

“Based upon those comments, any individual who is involved with a provincially run cannabis store could be deemed inadmissible (to the U.S.),” Saunders said in an interview. “This, for the Canadian government, is a worst-case scenario.”

But Saunders said that Owen’s comments suggest U.S. border policy could capture any provincial employee in its criteria for a lifetime ban.

This is because border officers sometimes “follow the money” during routine questioning of Canadian travellers, Saunders said. This, he added, explains why venture capitalists like Sam Znaimer or CEOs of engineering firms like Jay Evans have been hit with lifetime bans.

In Znaimer’s case, Saunders said, “aiding and abetting” was the charge that resulted in a lifetime ban. Evans and his colleagues, on the other hand, say they were told by CBP officers that in the eyes of U.S. law, they are drug traffickers (despite the fact that neither they nor their company produce, handle, purchase or sell cannabis).

But in both cases, the lawyer said, the individuals involved could just as easily have been banned for “living off the avails of crime.” This charge, he added, is sometimes used at the border to tie individuals only tangentially involved in the cannabis industry to violations of U.S. federal law.

Based on that precedent, and in light of Owen’s recent comments, any employee of a provincial government that controls and profits from the sale of cannabis could potentially be eligible for inadmissibility, Saunders said.

“Where is the money going from (cannabis) sales?” he asked. “The province of B.C. Which means every single provincial employee who gets paid from the province of B.C., including John Horgan ... could be deemed inadmissible for living off the avails of crime.”

In his interview with Politico, Owen, who is the CBP’s executive assistant commissioner for the Office of Field Operations, said the U.S. government does not recognize the cannabis industry as a legal business.

“If you work for the (cannabis) industry,” he said, referring to Canadian travellers, “that is grounds for inadmissibility.”

Owen made the comments in the context of Canada’s looming legalization of cannabis, saying that CBP policy would not change simply because drug policy has undergone reform in Canada.

This was reiterated by a CBP spokesperson in a statement to StarMetro, which reads, “U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforces the laws of the United States. Although medical and recreational marijuana may be legal in some U.S. States and becoming legal in Canada, the sale, possession, production and distribution of marijuana remain illegal under U.S. federal law.”

Regardless of whether cannabis is legal just steps from either side of any port of entry, travellers passing through a port are — and will be — subject to U.S. federal law.

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Lifetime bans for admission of cannabis use have been handed out to Canadians for decades. Saunders said the number of Canadians seeking his assistance in obtaining temporary waivers for these bans has increased from one or two a year in the 1990s to one or two a week.

He accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of a deeply irresponsible omission while describing border relations in a recent interview on CBC Manitoba.

The respective drug laws in Canada and the U.S., Trudeau said, are “not that different. If you’re travelling from B.C. to Washington, both sides will have legalized marijuana as of Oct. 17.”

Saunders expressed outrage over Trudeau’s failure to acknowledge that federal law governs U.S. ports of entry, adding that eluding the truth in this way does a deep disservice to Canadians’ understanding of their rights as travellers.

During that same interview, Trudeau commented that he would never lie to a U.S. border guard if asked whether he’d ever used cannabis. This, Saunders said, sets a dangerous example by implying that Canadians should self-incriminate at the border rather than revoke their request to enter the U.S.

Other members of Trudeau’s administration have been more direct. A spokesperson for federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told StarMetro that “cannabis remains illegal under U.S. federal law. Canadians who wish to enter the United States or any other country have to adhere to its laws.”

Goodale has raised the issue in virtually every meeting he’s had with his American counterparts, the spokesperson continued, including the previous and current secretaries of homeland security. From those conversations, he added, U.S. officials have indicated they do not plan on changing border protocols after cannabis is legalized in Canada.

Saunders said that not every Canadian will be questioned about their drug use or their livelihood. But the only good advice for those who are eligible for bans and who face these questions is to refuse to answer and to revoke their request to enter the U.S. and try again another day, he said.

In the meantime, he said, if Owen’s comments stand, Canadian travellers are in for a world of trouble once legalization takes effect.

“Will (the CBP) go that far?” he asked. “Who knows? You want to be the first one that takes that chance?”

With files from Daniel Dale

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