Saturday, March 7, 2009

Welcome to the US...eh?

As much as I hate to rag on our neighbors to the south the story I read yesterday in the Globe and Mail nearly killed me.

A Canadian citizen was pepper sprayed and interrogated for the 3 hours at a US border crossing off British Columbia for get this: asking them to be polite. He was told to turn off his car engine, he asked the border guard to say please at which point he was asked to exit the vehicle, pepper sprayed, tackled to the ground and interrogated by US customs officers.

This is a guy who apparently crosses the border 3 times per week to visit his second home in Washington state.In order to cross into the US, he must now provide written proof from the mounties that he does not have a criminal record and that he is in fact Canadian.

A US customs spokesman said that the officers gave a lawful order that travelers must obey.

And people ask me why I don't shop in Vermont anymore...

4 comments:

Patrick Ross said...

Bad jokes:

Pepper spray is how they say "please and thank you" at the US border.

Muchacho Enfermo said...

Those customs people really take their jobs seriously in the US. Oh the stories I could tell you about them...

Patrick Ross said...

I've never had a problem with them. I've never even be searched, but I would want to be treated respectfully even if I were.

Muchacho Enfermo said...

Nor have I... But a very good friend of mine used to be a long distance trucker. He was and still is Muslim.
Let's just say that after 9-11 his job became extremely hard to do.