Canadians claim to be outraged that U.S. officials have been fingerprinting our citizens of Arab and Iranian birth when they cross into the U.S. We are hypocrites.

The federal government has been protesting against a two-month-old U.S. policy that requires citizens of this country who were born in certain Muslim lands to be fingerprinted and photographed, and their visit registered in a computer, if they enter the United States. This procedure applies to citizens of any nation entering the U.S. who were born in suspect countries (Syria, Libya, Iraq -- you know the club). Nonetheless, Ottawa was so concerned it issued a travel advisory, as though the United States were some unstable tropical regime.

From the start, U.S. Justice Department officials insisted that Canadians were not the target of the new regulation. But it's hard to tell border guards to, nudge-nudge, treat the Canucks special. So the border guards applied the rules equally, prompting Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal to complain about "the ugly face of America."

In stories like this, the spin in Ottawa and Washington is usually tailored to satisfy the two audiences, just as a Canadian politician gives one speech in Montreal and another in Calgary. Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham proclaimed a Canadian victory, saying U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci assured him that, in future, a Canadian will be treated like a Canadian, regardless of origin.

But in the American press, Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, insisted "there are no countries exempted from the program," though "we have taken measures to minimize the impact on Canadian citizens."

Interpretation: Canada is still subject to the regulation, but border guards will be reminded again to treat us gently.

But here's the thing: What grounds do Canadians have for thinking they should be exempt from U.S. border controls?

The events of Sept. 11 seem to have receded from this country's consciousness. Even from the start, we tended to think about that day in terms of how it affected us: how it rattled our economy, how our security laws had to be changed, how we are being drawn into American imbroglios overseas.

What we don't do -- when it is the first thing we should do, without exception -- is remember what happened, remember the thousands incinerated, remember the horror of those hours, remember the grave in the middle of Manhattan.

But for some of us, the terror of the attacks is as viscerally real now as it was then. And the attitude of our fellow countrymen leaves us bewildered.

Canadians want Americans to treat us as their closest friends, the exception to all of their rules. Except we reserve the right to treat them the way everyone else treats them. We criticize their culture, mock their government, lambaste their foreign policy, decry their economic success. Then we react with horror when they apply the same regulation to us that they apply to everyone else, even to allies far more stalwart than ourselves.

The Americans have every right to look closely at Canadians -- and all other foreign nationals -- who also hold citizenship from an Arab country. There is great and rising tension between the Islamic world and the West. Certain fanatics hailing from Arab Islamic states have tried -- and are still trying -- to enter the United States and do it harm. The Americans underestimated the threat once, and paid for it in blood. They aim not to underestimate it again.

So they are watching their border very, very closely. And because resources are finite, they are paying special attention to people with ties to countries from which previous attacks have come. You say that's racial profiling. Damn right it is. If it bothers you, complain to those government that are graduating homicidal fanatics from their education system, not to Americans trying to protect themselves.

If we want Americans to be culture-blind to Canadians crossing the border, then we must take such extraordinary measures to ensure that people of ill will are not infiltrating our country that others can rest assured anyone carrying a Canadian passport is, by definition, certified reliable.

Instead, the same day he claimed victory over American imperialism, Mr. Graham insisted that Canada has not declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization because some Canadians financially support its social and political wings but don't contribute to its military (that is, suicide bomber) activities. Apparently, Hezbollah retains a pristine integrity to its bookkeeping that eludes provincial governments.

If you were an American, and you heard that Canada wasn't ready to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization, how secure would you feel about your northern border?

Most of all, what galls is our sanctimony. We want Americans to treat Canadians -- all Canadians, without exception -- as though we are as one with them. But we won't contribute anything remotely like our share to continental defence, we stand aside when they ask for help in stopping Saddam Hussein, and ministers of the Crown speak with condescending derision of ugly Americans.

There are 3,000 dead. There's a hole in the ground. They're trying to protect their borders. Sometimes, it's amazing they put up with us at all.
jibbitson@globeandmail.ca