Going to Canada? Check your past ...

[solar]

Going to Canada? Check your past
Visitors with minor criminal records turned back at border

by C.W. Nevius (from this link)

Friday, February 23, 2007

There was a time not long ago when a trip across the border from the United States to Canada was accomplished with a wink and a wave of a driver's license.

Those days are over.

Take the case of 55-year-old Lake Tahoe resident Greg Felsch.

Stopped at the border in Vancouver this month at the start of a planned five-day ski trip, he was sent back to the United States because of a DUI conviction seven years ago.

Not that he had any idea what was going on when he was told at customs: "Your next stop is immigration.''

Felsch was ushered into a room.

"There must have been 75 people in line," he says. "We were there for three hours. One woman was in tears. A guy was sent back for having a medical marijuana card. I felt like a felon with an ankle bracelet.''

Or ask the well-to-do East Bay couple who flew to British Columbia this month for an eight-day ski vacation at the famed Whistler Chateau, where rooms run to $500 a night.

They'd made the trip many times, but were surprised at the border to be told that the husband would have to report to "secondary'' immigration.

There, in a room he estimates was filled with 60 other concerned travelers, he was told he was "a person who was inadmissible to Canada.''

The problem?

A conviction for marijuana possession.

In 1975.

Welcome to the new world of border security.

Unsuspecting Americans are turning up at the Canadian border expecting clear sailing, only to find that their past -- sometimes their distant past -- is suddenly an issue.

While Canada officially has barred travelers convicted of criminal offenses for years, attorneys say post-9/11 information-gathering, combined with a sweeping agreement between Canada and the United States to share data, has resulted in a spike in phone calls from concerned travelers.

They are shocked to hear that the sins of their youth might keep them out of Canada. But what they don't know is that this is just the beginning.

Soon other nations will be able to look into your past when you want to travel there.

"It's completely ridiculous,'' said Chris Cannon, an attorney representing the East Bay couple, who asked that their names not be used because they don't want their kids to know about the pot rap. "It's a disaster. I mean, who didn't smoke pot in the '70s?''

We're about to find out.

And don't think you are in the clear if you never inhaled.

Ever get nabbed for a DUI?

How about shoplifting?

Turn around. You aren't getting in ...

[Access the rest of the article at this link]

[FastTadpole]

This article reads as behave .. or else - if taken from a certain perspective.

The borders have become blurred in regards to most law, some standards (lowest common denominator) and certain forms of commerce which favour multinationals for the most part with the injections of Free Trade and the NAFTA contractual obligations. We share a military as evidenced by recent undeclared wars in the middle east that both the US and Canada have sent off their children to die in. Privacy is dead. Sovereignty is dead. The border is now just one big anal probe of a checkpoint.

.. until people get up off of their couches and demand that they will not sacrifice their privacy and freedom for the illusion of safety from manufactured fear and pores security the so called 'elite' are peddling to us.

[solar]

(02-24-2010 05:45 AM)FastTadpole Wrote:  This article reads as behave .. or else - if taken from a certain perspective [...]

Exactly!

That's the aspect that was annoying about this "data sharing" article ...

... as if it was written with the "embedded message" to international travelers: "Behave or else!".

Many other reports indicate that it's worse coming into the US ...

... thank you for the response, FastTadpole!

[SiLVa]

I have a friend that was denied entry into Canada last year. They found out he had a DUI like 7-8 years ago. Didnt even get past the airport. They sent him back on the next flight out.
Its so ridiculous.

[h3rm35]

well shit! there go my travel plans! I wanted to head up to BC this summer. I guess its back to just going to Mexico.