Canada has told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that it used its "prerogative" in revoking the visa issued to Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj but did not specify why.
The ambiguous response by Ottawa is likely to lead to further speculation that Canada withdrew the visa because it was concerned about the death squad allegations [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] levelled against the Home Affairs Minister.
Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally told Stabroek News yesterday that he had received a response from the High Commission; it was not expansive but had made the point that the revocation was not to be viewed as a sanction.
He added that the letter indicated that the High Commission had exercised its prerogative under Canadian immigration laws to revoke the minister's visa.
Gajraj last week authorised [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] the High Commission to release the information on which the revocation order was based to overcome Canadian privacy laws which prevented the High Commission from making the information available to a third party.
The ministry requested that the High Commission inform the police about the reasons for the revocation of the visa since the release of the information would serve to discourage speculation and help to achieve an understanding and resolution of the issue.
Gajraj is at the centre of allegations, which he has denied, that he knew about a death squad that killed numerous criminals.
On Thursday, the Chief Immigration Officer at the Canadian High Commission in Trinidad, William Farrell had told Stabroek News that generally the issuance or revocation of a visa is at the discretion of the consular officer. He added that there are certain circumstances where under Canadian law the consular officer has no choice but to rescind the visa. These circumstances include a criminal conviction or a medical condition which could put an undue strain on the Canadian health system.
Another minister, Foreign Trade Minister Clement Rohee has encountered difficulties [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] in having a US visa approved for him also raising questions as to the reason why. Insanally told Stabroek News that while the government had accepted the explanation that the delay is due to the various agencies in the United States dealing with the matter, it has indicated that it would have expected that the visa would have been issued by now.
He expects that Cabinet would need to consider the next steps to be taken in addressing the issue.
Rohee applied for a visa in December through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the local US embassy referred it to Washington DC. Both the ministry and Rohee have said that they are yet to be informed why the application was forwarded to Washington DC for processing. However, a US embassy official yesterday confirmed that the embassy has notified Rohee about the reasons for the referral.
In the absence of a US visa Rohee had to travel through Venezuela to attend the Summit of the Americas meeting in Monterrey, Mexico.