Canada regrets minister’s trip cancellation

Canadian High Commissioner Angela J. Bogden has written to us ‘to clarify’ the circumstances under which Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka cancelled his official visit to Canada. The Sunday Times in a page 1 story last week stated that the Minister had complained of ‘humiliation’ and asked the Foreign Ministry to inquire into a delay on the part of the Canadian High Commission in Colombo issuing him a visa to enter that country to collect an environment award.

The High Commissioner states “even had the Minister submitted his application on September 11, as stated in your newspaper, it would have been late for travel. Instead, the Minister's office provided less than two working days for the visa process, despite having known about the conference for some time. When the visa was issued at short notice, the Minister chose not to proceed to Canada, although he might well have done so.”

“The High Commission very much regrets the Minister's decision not to travel to Canada as he had been issued a valid visa for this trip.” The High Commissioner adds that offence to the Minister was never at issue, and Canadian officials made ‘significant efforts’ to address the matter satisfactorily ‘on short notice.’ The Canadian Government requires a minimum processing time of 10 days for such requests, and says its reciprocal with Canadian ‘officials’ travelling to Sri Lanka.

Ms. Bogden concludes by referring to the “deep connections and good relations” between the two countries, and that Canada “looks forward to continued co-operation with Sri Lanka and advancing our respective human rights and humanitarian obligations at both bilateral and multilateral level, especially at the Human Rights Council.”

We understand that the Foreign Ministry will undertake a formal inquiry into the matter following a formal complaint made to it by the Environment Ministry Secretary when the Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary return from their UN trip. There were unconfirmed reports that the Foreign Secretary may have taken up the matter with his Canadian counterpart on an informal basis when they met in New York.

The Canadian Embassy this week strained to explain that it gives no preferential treatment to Ministers who apply for visas, and that even though it knew the Minister was leaving Sri Lanka on Saturday morning at 6 a.m. the visa could only have been ready by 10 a.m. that day - even though the Minister's passport was returned to him.The mission statement lacks credibility and it is common experience that foreign missions do give visas in a few hours on an urgent basis. The Canadian High Commission is shielding itself behind what it calls ‘visa process time.’

The Minister makes it out that he cancelled his trip to Canada and asked for the return of his passport. What else could he do? He needed his passport to leave the country the next morning, and had no entry permit to Canada. At the rate our ministers are travelling, foreign missions must be having a time of their life issuing them visas.

It also begs the question - could not our High Commissioner in Ottawa have collected that award on behalf of Sri Lanka. And then what’s this fuss over a Minister's travel? Some three years ago, the British High Commission announced that Sri Lankans travelling to that country had to be compulsorily finger-printed. Amidst a public outcry Sri Lankans were being treated like common criminals, the High Commission said it was only for a six-month trial period. That was six six months ago. Oh!, the trials and tribulations of the 'ordinary' Sri Lankans.