Avoid U.S. travel if possible, Canadian academics are being urged – National [Video]

An advocacy group representing Canada’s university and college professors is strongly urging academic staff to avoid non-essential travel to the U.S. amid an “evolving political landscape.”

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), a group of independent associations and trade unions that represent 72,000 teachers, researchers and other staff at 120 universities and colleges, issued its updated travel advice on Tuesday.

“CAUT strongly recommends that academic staff travel to the U.S. only if essential and necessary,” the warning reads.

The organization said that academics who fall into certain categories should “exercise particular caution.”

Those categories include citizens or residents of a country identified as likely to be subject to a travel ban, those from a country that has diplomatic tensions with the U.S., people who expressed negative opinions about the Trump administration or its policies, and those whose research could be seen as “at odds” with the current U.S. government.

The warning also applies to travellers with passport stamps related …