Canada has expressed dismay after the United States suspended visas for foreign commercial truck drivers and urged Ottawa to provide swift measures to mitigate the effects of the same problem in the sector. In the announcement made by the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on Thursday, the dangers of foreign drivers operating long-haul trucks towing trailers were emphasized using American roads. Rubio explained the action, citing safety reasons and the plan to ruin the livelihood of American truckers.
The U.S. move is after a fatal road accident took place in Florida this month, in which an Indian-origin truck driver had initially entered the country illegally but received a commercial driver permit in 2018 in California. On the 12th of August, Harjinder Singh made an illegal U-turn when travelling in a truck, leading to an accident that claimed the lives of three people in a minivan. Singh can be deported now and charged with three charges of vehicular manslaughter. DHS reports show that Singh had been previously processed to be deported under the Trump administration, but entered the asylum system by purporting fear of life in India.
The U.S. visa restrictions themselves do not directly impact Canadian trucking visas, but the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has issued a harsh statement urging the Canadian government to take proactive measures in response. CTA described the move by the U.S. as a wake-up call to Canada to fix similar problems in its trucking and immigration regimes. The association pointed out that the lack of action on redesigning the trucking immigration procedure and practices on both federal and provincial levels places the industry a risk of experiencing future similar restrictions.
The CTA also stressed that adherence and compliance with law-abiding drivers should not suffer loss due to loopholes or disregard of oversight on regulatory actions. The association has repeatedly asked the government to address immigration related issues in the trucking sector.
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