Canada blocks Puigdemont visit days before he was set to land in Quebec

Former Catalan president was invited to speak by a group advocating Quebec independence

Martin Patriquin in Montreal and Sam Jones in Madrid
Mon 29 Apr 2019 22.42 BST Last modified on Mon 29 Apr 2019 23.43 BST

The Canadian government blocked a visit by Carles Puigdemont days before the former Catalan president was to travel to the country at the invitation of a group advocating Quebec independence, his lawyer said on Monday.

Puigdemont had been scheduled to speak in Quebec earlier this month on his experiences as a leader of the Catalonian independence movement – including his spearheading of the region’s 2017 unilateral referendum on separation from Spain. His schedule was to include a visit to the province’s national assembly.

But days before he was due to land in Montreal on 2 April, the Canadian government revoked Puigdemont’s electronic travel authorization (ETA), a document issued to those traveling from countries from which Canada does not have visa requirements. Enacted in 2016, the ETA program was designed in part to weed out potential security threats.

Puigdemont is wanted by the Spanish authorities over the role his government played in trying to break away from the rest of the country in 2017.

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