The Canadian exemption comes about because this will be applied at all border crossings, and it would be rather difficult to do this with every car crossing over daily. The threat espoused by FA cannot be as bad as he and others contend, particularly now that Canada has required all landed immigrants to have the new ID cards, and has tightened general access provisions over the past two years.

A sidelight in some of the news reports of this new requirement is interesting. It notes that AC's increase in services to/from SAmerica is in part justified in that the airline will now gain substantial business from residents of those countries who do not want to go through this hassle -- and othe procedures imposed on them -- while transiting the US on their way to Asia or Europe.