 In an interview with CBC's The National to air tonight, the PM signals strong concerns about the U.S. approach to counter-terrorism when asked about that country's recent decision to impose more stringent security measures on travellers from 14 designated nations. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accused the Americans of taking a flawed "gun registry approach" to national security.
In an interview with CBC's The National Tuesday, the PM signalled strong concerns about the U.S. approach to counter-terrorism when asked about that country's recent decision to impose more stringent security measures on travellers from 14 designated nations. Harper suggested security often trumps ruffled diplomatic feathers, but hinted Canada could take a different approach than the U.S.
"It's not about diplomatic relations, these are often about other considerations. It ultimately in this case has to be about the possibility of a security threat and dealing with that. As I say, we're going to look at these measures very carefully and we may arrive at different conclusions," he said.
"The one concern I do have about this — and I have expressed this to American leaders — I see what I call the "gun registry approach" to a lot of security issues, which is 'Let's just put everyone on a list, register everything.' We know from our own experience with our gun registry that this is not necessarily the smartest or most effective way to actually identify real threats."
Harper could not recall if he raised his concerns with President Barack Obama, but said he took them up with former president George W. Bush and a series of American officials.
The PM said he hopes security clampdowns, which will "invariably" cause some changes in mass procedure, will be "intelligent" responses that "effectively identify threats before they happen, as opposed to massive bureaucratic sets of rules or procedures which I think in and of themselves are of limited value."
