High school students in Montreal have decided to cancel their planned class trip to the United States because a small number of their peers could face trouble at the border.
Roughly 100 Grade 11 students at Westmount High School had been planning a school trip to Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia since 2016. Their itinerary included everything from a visit to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian to trying out Philly cheesesteaks.
After much debate, the students decided they will go to Toronto and Niagara Falls instead. That’s because at least three students were worried they could be turned back from the U.S.-Canada border.
Since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, at least two Canadian citizens from Quebec say they have been unexpectedly turned away from the U.S. border. In separate incidents, Fadwa Alaoui and Manpreet Kooner were turned away from Vermont by U.S. border guards. Alaoui said she believes she was sent back to Canada because she is a practicing Muslim. Experts have said Kooner’s case could have been the result of racial profiling. Trump’s name came up at the border in both cases, according to the women. Trump has issued executive orders temporarily banning visas for people from several Muslim-majority countries and also vowed “extreme vetting.”
Ethics teacher Sabrina Jafralie said her students were asked to debate whether to go ahead with the trip, after some students expressed fears.
Student Karlee Thomas said she has never been to the U.S. before so she was initially disappointed that the trip has been cancelled.
In the end, she decided it simply wasn’t right. “For me, it was like we're taking everyone or else we're not going,” Thomas said. “So initially I was upset but then I thought about it and questioned my ethics -- would I be OK to sleep at night if I went without those three people?”
The Westmount students aren’t the only Canadians avoiding travel to Trump’s America. School boards from Vancouver Island to Windsor, Ont., have cancelled travel to the U.S. in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Girl Guides of Canada said Monday that it will not approve any new travel to the U.S., due uncertainty about “the ability of all our members to equally enter this country.”
Experts say many average Canadians are also uncomfortable about heading to the U.S. this year, so the country’s tourism industry is poised to take a big hit.
With a report from CTV Montreal’s Tarah Schwartz
