Canadian Border Crossing

[vdubnut62]

Has anyone else read this?  Now I wonder why the Mexican border is so easily crossed by Illegals when this happens to American Citizens?
Yeah, I know, everybody thinks I'm nuts.
Ron

http://www.utterpower.com/a-diyers-september-nightmare-crossing-the-canadian-boarder/

[Crofter]

Ron, the age of computers has destroyed a whole lot of what we used to consider privacy. Especially since the bombing of the towers, in the name of security, powerful computers monitoring flag words and sites can put you on a list even by clicking on them. Electronic purchases of items that could be considered as precursors for illegal activites could do the same. I imagine that something like that is what triggered the witch hunt on those two guys. A powerfull chunk of cash goes into financing this paranoia!

[JohnF]

Ron;

You are not nuts - it is happening more and more often, especially to older white guys.  I "think" what is happening is that the border people have a quota (number of cars searched a day or whatever) and it is much easier to pick on old white guys who have nothing to hide - that way they get the numbers in but don't have to do much else.  I went into the U.S. last week and was interrogated for a hour or so because I was sending some parts out to a customer (about $65.00 worth).  Apparently I had filled in the wrong form - but of course it was the one the LAST border guy told me to use.....

I was in policing for 32 years and know the trouble that a single ethnic minority person can cause.  There is even a term for it - FIDO - Fuck It, Drive On.  Saves a lot of paperwork.

[vdubnut62]

 Allegedly, the US of A has the ability to listen to any and all electronic communication. The program was again, allegedly named CARNIVORE. It listened for certain key words such as bomb, explosives etc. and other words that a "Terrorist" might use, and if they were heard, the program alerted a human listener.
At any rate, my friend and I spend countless hours on the phone driving at night and the standing joke was that one day, the Black Helicopters would target me and I, like Daffy Duck of Looney Tunes fame, would be skidding down the road on my bum, holding a steering wheel, everything black except my eyes
with a little curl of smoke coming up.
All this from my innocent use of the term "Intercontinental Ballistic Turd-seeking Missile". We would call in  this missile strike out of exasperation with other people's driving when they did something stupid.
I'm pretty sure this  silliness  generated a file with my name on it, probably stored somewhere in Northern Virginia.
So.... I'm not gonna cross the border anytime soon.

See? Everyone thinks I'm nuts.
Ron

[cognos]

I'm sure it's a true story, inasfar as the person that wrote it had a rough time crossing the border into Canada - then got flagged for complaining about it to the Customs and Immigration officers...

The story sounds to me that their "discomfort" at the Canadian border, and their reaction to it, got them flagged...

There's all kinds of reasons that people have that kind of experience crossing into Canada from the US. The most common, is the one they were given - random check. Happens all the time, has happened to me, and I used to cross the border and return with cars to import back into Canada quite regularly. I've been personally searched, had my vehicle searched, had my camera, phone, luggage, gone through by agents and dogs. It happens.

Paperwork in order is rewarded. Polite complacence is rewarded. "Yes Sir/Maam - No Sir/Maam" is rewarded. Just answering the questions directly is rewarded. Much else, you can get flagged... and that is a recipe for closer scrutiny when crossing the border, possibly forever - on any border, anywhere in the world. I have a friend who pissed off a Customs agent at the Toronto airport once, coming back from Jamaica - 20 years ago. He still has a bitch of a time at border crossings and airports...

Be familiar with the law of the country you are crossing into. Your country's citizenship
"rights" may not transfer into the country you are entering in quite the way you think they should... I always told my drivers to keep their traps shut, answer the questions, and just roll with it. That strategy works...

I feel for the guys, but I pity them the next time they cross the border...

[LowGear]

I always feel sorry for poor whitey.  The world is out to get him.  Welcome to the world brothers.

This crap is maddening to me too.  We had a choice back in 2001 and we were led into fear and suspicion. 

A friend sent me a couple of photos of his grand daughters.  I complimented him on his ascendants and cautioned him about keeping these photos of them in bathing suits at a family picnic on his computer.  He still doesn't understand and I'm a jackass.

I was in the Army for almost three years and learned how to salute the uniform no matter how wrong the warm body in it was.  I now do the same thing at borders and TSA crossings.  You'll be surprised how much respect even a somewhat relaxed "parade rest" brings out in almost everyone.  And I too use Sir and Mam when appropriate.  [Not with Senator Boxer. ]

Casey

[cognos]

I'm quite sure I'm on a list. I get excellent service at the border, even with all the new security checks in place. The people I have dealt with have been unfailingly polite and professional, if sometimes a bit harried and officious. Even the dogs have been cool. When I've been likewise.

I'm sure even "border guards" have bad days.

Thing is, once you're here, they have to follow procedures. And the procedures on the Canuck side aren't always to visitors' likings... but once the procedure starts, it has to complete... no amount of protest will stop it, it just makes more procedures kick in - which makes usually makes a frustrating situation worse... and one's "rights" get instantly trumped in the name of "National Security."

In summer, I used to travel across the lake by boat to the US every other week! Just for fun and cheap beer and gas! We always checked in with Customs and Immigration on the US side.
It got so the US guys would see us at the dock as we were pulling in to rope up - they'd wave us off, they were so used to us!
We always called in to Canadian Customs when we got home, and declared everything (you're not supposed to unload anything from the boat that you bought in the US until you call in and declare it)...
We got to recognize the plainclothes guys that hung around the gas docks and marinas on the Canadian side, looking for boats coming back from the US filled with booze, clothes, TV's all kinds of stuff - the Customs Cops would just haul 'em in!
We used to wave to them. They'd wave back...

Those days are loooong over.

Old white guys or not, since 9/11, everybody is inconvenienced equally, as far as I can see it.

[LowGear]

Old white guys or not, since 9/11, everybody is inconvenienced equally, as far as I can see it.

Not Really.  I have long hair and beard.  If it weren't for my baby blues I could almost pass as a stereotypical Muslim Cleric.  I rarely (until now) get the massage therapy from TSA.  I had a student a few years ago.  He was Cuban descended American that was born in Hawaii (third generation) and he wore short hair and a mustache.  He expected the special care program every time and was rarely disappointed. 

Now that I'm 66 and resemble Santa most of the agents can't even see me.  I'd kind of like to shorten both my beard and hair but the wonderful treatment I receive as an old man; well I just can't let go of it.

Casey

[cognos]

Ha!

What I meant was, now even "old white guys" often get the "treatment" that was, in the bad old days, reserved for the stereotypes - mostly in the mind of the public, that is...

It's not just the stereotypes that smuggle and cause trouble in the world these days... never was!

[LowGear]

Hi cognos,

I agree.  I also think that a really dedicated pro or even semi-pro can do pretty much what they want.  And they don't fool around looking like anything except Gosh Bless America citizens or wannabes.

Casey

[vdubnut62]

I'm sorry Men, perhaps I didn't make my question clear.

Why do 2 card carrying US citizens have to jump through hoops at the NORTHERN border, to enter back into their homeland.......when ANYONE can just stroll across the SOUTHERN one?

I guess I'm just too stubborn and plain stupid to begin to understand

Oh the hell with it, they can just add another page or two  to my aforementioned file.
Nuff said, Ron.

[Crofter]

Ron, Uncle Sam is worried that his boys might be corrupting us Canuks or maybe bringing back some of our epizootics. Hell, we have outbreaks of anthrax, hoof and mouth, mad cow, swine flu, swamp fever! Bad place, coming or going!

[cognos]

Oh, I fully understood the question - why is the Canadian/US border so protected - vs. the US/Mexico border, that seems like a sieve?

Perhaps because it can be, and it's not possible at US/Mexico interface...

That's a good question. I don't get that either. I guess Canada is a bigger threat to American security than Mexico...

I got the third degree from Mexican "Customs" entering Mexico at Nogales. They were quite thorough, right down to asking me for $20 USD to let me go. Perhaps if one side is inept and corrupt, a proper border can't be enforced.

[LowGear]

Message from cognos:

cognos apologizes to LowGear and everyone else for messing up LowGears' original post here.

I was trying to quote a piece of it, and ended up deleting most of his post. Sorry about that - I didn't know it was possible for me to modify someone else's post. I will be more diligent in the future.

It was a good post with good points, and I hope LowGear will rememebr it and repost it here.

[bschwartz]

Maybe we don't let the Canadians come down cuz they wont pick crops for slave wages?