American talk show host and failed presidential candidate Pat Buchanan is making no apologies for attacking Canada over its objection to a U.S. law which Ottawa decried as racial profiling.

Speaking on his MSNBC talk show on Thursday, Buchanan called Canada a "Soviet Canuckistan" after a Canadian outcry blasted the U.S. government for forcing Canadian visitors of Middle Eastern descent to be fingerprinted and photographed.

The U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, later said Canadians would be exempted from the new law after Ottawa bitterly complained it violated human rights in both countries.

Buchanan said the U.S. has made great strides in beefing up security and defence since Sept. 11 to protect its borders, and equated Canadians to freeloaders.

"It's the blame-America-first crowd,'' Buchanan said. "The Canadians ... have been defended by the United States, they pay nothing for defence."

Ottawa's current military budget is 1.1 per cent of the size of the economy -- beating only tiny Luxembourg's 0.7 per cent but far below the 2.1 per cent NATO average and the 3.0 per cent in the United States.

Buchanan said Americans don't want to hear what he calls "carping criticism" from Canada and said Prime Minister Jean Chretien has done an appalling job of keeping up Canada's end of North American security.

"That place is a complete haven for international terrorists,'' Buchanan said. "Even their own retired security guys say it's a complete haven. We ... need lectures from some people, not from Soviet Canuckistan."

Reaction to Buchanan's comment was swift. Maude Barlow, a spokesperson for the Council of Canadians, said the failed presidential candidate's statements were "disgraceful" and based on "ignorance."

"The Sept. 11 terrorists came from within the U.S. There's no evidence to support the statement that Canada is a haven," Barlow told the Canadian Press. "We don't have snipers running around with guns ... that's not our culture."

The Prime Minister's Office had little to say on the matter Friday.

"Pat Buchanan's views are well-known and we certainly don't share them," said PMO spokesperson Jim Munson.

In responding to the criticism, Buchanan said Canada needs to grow up and be a "big boy" and realize the U.S. has as much right to criticize Canada as Canada does the U.S.

Earlier this week, Ottawa issued a rare travel advisory to its citizens heading to the U.S. It warned Canadians born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Sudan that the Americans had introduced new security measures on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and should expect to be fingerprinted and photographed upon arrival.

Ottawa said Canadians should "consider carefully" if they really need to go to the U.S. for any reason. An ensuing backlash forced Washington to backdown, saying it will no longer subject Canadians to the tough new law.

It's not the first time that Buchanan has given Canada a tongue lashing.

In 1990, Buchanan wrote that if Canada shattered following the failure of the Meech Lake constitutional accord, "America would pick up the pieces."

Two years later, he said: "For most Americans, Canada is sort of like a case of latent arthritis. We really don't think about it, unless it acts up."