VANCOUVER -- A Danish filmmaker working on a documentary about the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline was denied entry at Vancouver International Airport on Friday and forced to fly home, he says, under the threat of a fine and jail time.
Kristian Lindhardt, who works for the public Danish Broadcast Corporation, known as DR, said he was pulled into secondary inspection by a Canada Border Services Agency officer when he landed Friday afternoon.
Lindhardt said he’s travelled to Canada many times as a journalist. But this time, he said he was told he didn’t meet the criteria to be admitted to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The (CBSA) officer kept going back to the statement: 'Press is not essential. Media work is not essential. We have our own reporters. We don’t need you,'" Lindhardt told CTV News on Monday from Copenhagen.
When questioned, Lindhardt said he provided the CBSA officer with a letter from his editor, a letter from the Danish Union of Journalists, his 14-day quarantine plan, and a personalized invitation signed by Sundance Chief Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
In that letter, George refers to Lindhardt as "essential to our work…to hold off COVID-19, environmental destruction, and the climate crisis."
"I kept trying to explain that international press and journalism is still essential during crisis times, maybe especially during a crisis," Lindhardt said.
In a statement, the CBSA declined to discuss Lindhardt’s case, but told CTV News admissibility decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.
"The onus is on the traveller to show that their presence in Canada is required,” CBSA senior spokesperson Rebecca Purdy wrote.
"The foreign national must clearly demonstrate and substantiate why they need to be in Canada to carry out the journalistic activity in order to be considered as coming to Canada for non-discretionary purpose."
CBSA also explained that during the pandemic, foreign nationals who aren’t immediate family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents and are entering from a country other than the U.S. must not be travelling for "optional" or "discretionary" purposes and must also qualify for an exemption.
The current Order In Council that lists exemptions does not include journalists, but rather any person who "will provide an essential service while in Canada." This, as Purdy indicated, leaves the decision up to the discretion of the CBSA officer.
Former federal Green party leader Elizabeth May, whom Lindhardt contacted after he was denied entry, called the case "unfortunate and regrettable" and said it "does not do our reputation any good in the world."
"I think Canadians will be surprised to realize, that on cases that are borderline, they could go either way, it’s up to the individual agent," May said.
She questioned a system that allows one agent to make a determination with no appeal.
And Lindhardt asked why a country which is seen from the outside as a "global, progressive, green world leader" wouldn’t view international news coverage of issues related to the climate crisis as "essential."
“To me it’s essential to travel around the world to tell this story the right way," Lindhardt said.
"I was really surprised (by the denial)... that’s something you hear in North Korea, in China, in Belarus right now."
Lindhardt said he plans to return to complete his film, potentially once the pandemic restrictions are eased.
