Montreal Events

On the heels of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which required stricter documentation for entry into the United States by land or sea, comes tighter rules on the Canadian border. Mexican and Czech citizens entering Canada are required to have a visa.

"The visa requirement I am announcing will give us a greater ability to manage the flow of people into Canada and verify bona fides," said Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney in a statement. "The visa process will allow us to assess who is coming to Canada as a legitimate visitor and who might be trying to use the refugee system to jump the immigration queue.

"It is not fair for those who have been waiting patiently to come to Canada, sometimes for years, when others succeed in bypassing our immigration system," he said.

The new requirements apply to these two countries because of the high number of refugee claims. Mexico refugee claims have almost tripled since 2005 and have skyrocketed from five to 3,000 claims for Czech citizens since Canada dropped Czech visa requirements in 2007.

Not surprisingly, the requirements weren't taken lightly by Czech and Mexican authorities. Czech Premier Jan Fischer said in a press conference that he regretted Canada's decision and hopes to continue talks to re-establish non-visa travel.

The tourism industry also stands to suffer from Canada's decision, critics say.

"This couldn't have come at a worse time, at the very height of the tourism season," New Democratic Party (NDP) tourism critic Bruce Hyer told CBC News. "More than 200,000 Mexican tourists visited Canada last year, but now many planning to visit Canada will have to cancel their bookings."

Do you see visa requirements affecting your attendees to events in Toronto and across Canada? Would it affect your meeting destination selection?