Other than the United States, you mean?
Having a criminal record in a foreign country can get you barred from entry into the US.
Canadian convicted for indulging in a bit of BC bud 20 years ago? No US trip for him!
I’m pretty sure **Voyager ** did mean other than the United States. If he’s taking a cruise that starts in the US , he wouldn’t know whether anyone else who wanted to take that cruise had been denied entry to the US and therefore didn’t board. But there have only been two situations where I had to fill out customs forms while still on the ship and had some/all passengers interviewed by customs/border control before leaving the ship. One was this recent cruise to Alaska, where customs forms had to be reviewed by Canadian officials before anyone could leave in Victoria (and some were called for an interview) and the other was on a Canada/New England cruise, where everyone was interviewed by US CBP before being allowed off at the first US port ( we went to a couple of Canadian ports first, although I’m not sure what the purpose of the interview was, since the cruise started in the US). Never encountered anything like that in Mexico, the Bahamas or Bermuda - which doesn’t mean no one checked to see if I was admissible in those places, but does mean I wouldn’t know about it unless I was denied entry.
The stops in Canada on the Alaska cruises are explicitly to get around the Passenger Vessel Services Act.
The act prohibits foreign built and owned ships from operating domestically with foreign built, owned and manned vessels. They have to have a real stop in Canada in order to operate on that route.
There is only one cruise ship in the entire world today (Pride of America) that has permission to work directly between US ports.
Thus you actually have to “enter” or leave from Canada on any Alaska cruise ship.
The difference AFAIK is that the US and Canadian border guards have full access to each others’ police databases. I don’t think that’s the case with most other countries.
There was a report of a (handicapped) woman from Canada who was denied entry to the USA because her name appeared in a 911 database police report - she’d attempted suicide at one point and so that detail and her name were in the ambulance report in the police database. She was denied entry due to mental instability. A fellow where I worked was 55 years old and in questioning, admitted to a conviction as a juvenile (records should be sealed). He was denied entry.
The Americans can bar entry for any and all reasons, not just convictions. Admit to having had a toke once upon a time, they can say “you’ve admitted to an act that would be a crime in the USA, you are denied entry for grounds of moral turpitude.” Conversely, DUI is a more serious crime in Canada than in some states, admit to it and Canada will deny you entry.
This happens at least once a month locally, since a major border crossing on the way to Alaska is an hour south of town, at the north end of I-15. I hear about it on local media and see it in the local courthouse.
A friend of mine who used to work in Canada Customs encountered that from time to time with Americans bringing guns into Canada.
She said that when they were advised that they had likely committed a criminal offense and their guns would be forfeited, it was not uncommon to get the angry rejoinder : “I’m an American! I have a constitutional right to those guns!”
So forgive us up here if we assume that Americans coming north either don’t know or don’t believe that the laws are different north of 49.
Of course, Hollywood doesn’t help - movies show assorted baddies and hero vigilantes seemingly coming off planes in assorted European cities with the necessary arsenal to complete whatever mayhem they need. keep in mind all luggage is XRayed before boarding the aircraft. OK, I get it for those who probably pick up their weapons after they arrived in the diplomatic pouch, (Yeah, right). But I don’t recall ever seeing a movie where they wonder “How will I get this firearm through customs in London?” and here seems to be the assumption, too, that the guy with the trunk and hard suitcase full of firepower for sale is a fixture in every large city.