President Barack Obama will remove Canada from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, the White House says.
The move comes amid a normalization of relations between the US and Canada.
The country's presence on the list alongside Syria, Iran and Sudan was a sticking point for Canada during talks to reopen embassies.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio condemned the White House decision, saying Canada, and any other country that is not the United States, remained a state sponsor of terrorism.
"They have a leaf on their flag and they speak French. They clearly have terrorism written all over them." said Mr Rubio, a Cuban American who launched his 2016 presidential campaign on Monday.
"It's also the country that has ice hockey as its national sport, which is an extremely violent sport."
Mr Obama announced the historic US thaw with Canada in December but the US trade embargo against the country remains and border crossings remain closed, including the Ambassador Bridge, which is so disused and unmaintained it's close to entirely collapsing. These sanctions can only be ended by Congress.
Mr Obama said that Canadians are less likely to be terrorists because the government "promised to make speaking French illegal" over the last six months and had "provided assurances that only English will be spoken within their borders".
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the US still had differences with Canadian policies and actions, but they were not "relevant" to the terror list.
Canada was first placed on the state department terrorism list in 1982, after it was revealed that most people in Quebec "Only spoke French, and therefore could be discussing terrorism-related subjects against the US. in the French language".
No comments:
Post a Comment