"Don't you have hurricanes in Canada?"

rouquinne · 08-18-2008, 02:13 PM

"Why can't you help your own people?"

geez...

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Loc...85186-sun.html

maybe the better question would be - why are border guards at one of the busiest crossings between our countries so ignorant?

Kaia · 08-18-2008, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Rausch challenged that, telling officers she knew many people are still displaced, three years after Katrina.
The guards told her not to believe everything she reads.

08-18-2008, 02:22 PM

Whoa, I just read that and was floored! Ignorant indeed!

My SO and I had a similar experience, but in the opposite direction. We were trying to get back into Canada (I am Canadian, SO is American). We were denied access, the border guards kept us for 5 hours, searched the car, were incredibly rude (And I am shocked and embarrassed because I am Canadian and thought we were a friendly bunch of nice people). I was told by the border guard, while being detained and separated from my SO that if I ran, I would be caught, and detained. (Not told, more like yelled at with a finger pointing in my face).

My SO was put through the ringer, called every name in the book and was told he was not welcome in Canada. He was told that if he tried to enter again, without work sponsorship, he would be detained and deported and then unable to even try to enter Canada for 10 years.

We were turned around and came back to the US. We were treated like royalty when we came back here. My SO is a good man, he is a 10 year twice combat vet, has won many medals, and for Canada to deny him entry into MY country sickens me.

I guess it goes both ways. Doesn't surprise me though after the fiasco we have gone through.

redcelticcurls · 08-18-2008, 02:31 PM

Good grief.

RedCatWaves · 08-18-2008, 03:50 PM

The "humanitarian aid" thing was the problem. That conjures up all sorts of beaurocratic red tape and the women in the story didn't have any paperwork to back them up. They should have just said they were going to the US for vacation. Both Canada and the US love vacationers.

rouquinne · 08-18-2008, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by need_hair_repair

I guess it goes both ways.

it does indeed... i've seen lots of people stopped at the border when trying to come to Canada. i took several trips by bus through the US and crossing the border that way was an eye-opener for me.

rouquinne · 08-18-2008, 04:27 PM

bailey, that's what got me, too - the border guard's insistence that the Katrina-ravaged areas aren't still in need of help... someone should sit him down in front of a computer with the archive of the Times-Picayune and a suggestion that he read it all!

Starrwithoutnite · 08-18-2008, 04:45 PM

Yes the guards seemed a few crayons short of a full box but I dont know how a story about 2 girls who didnt have proper paperwork and were denied entry into another country made the news...

Cynaminbear · 08-18-2008, 07:41 PM

Speaking of border crossing, I read about a golf course in Maine that straddles the US/Canadian border and was built that way on purpose. Back in 1929 it was to sidestep Prohibition.
I can't imagine having to carry a passport so you can golf.

rouquinne · 08-19-2008, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starrwithoutnite

...I dont know how a story about 2 girls who didnt have proper paperwork and were denied entry into another country made the news...

because hundreds of Canadians have gone to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in the Gulf area over the past 3 years and no one has been denied entry for lack of "paperwork" before.

add in the idiotic "don't you have hurricanes in Canada?" (uh, no more so than you do in Detroit...) and the denial of need in the Gulf states and you have the makings of an embarassing international incident.