by MassiveD » Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:20 am
The border is now a hostile zone. And has been since at least 9/11. I have impeccable credentials, or al least up until all the recent woke stuff, when good people became suspect. I am unfailingly polite. But I have none the less nearly been arrested twice entering the US. In both cases I only escaped because they didn't want the cost of holding. I was charged on one occasion with a ticket to appear in US court on a misdemeanor. This because, as we all know, it is very important to share "intelligence" which opens up the possibility of false arrest due to clerical errors on both sides of the border. There is a lot more population in the US to be mistaken for than in Canada. I no longer travel to the US, because of it, though I do accept that these occurrences are probably rare. Problem is, that unless you get a police check before your reach the border, you don't know what awaits you, and the border is well behind you by the time you get inspected, so you are both caught, and possibly a violator by the time you get checked.
Things got this way due to the borders, at least on the north being policed on both sides with the primary concern being terrorism, and not how much swag people are trying to import unpaid for. If you are getting grilled coming into Canada, a lot of it is because the US forced Canada to arm the border guards and mean them up a little. The first head of US homeland security never tired of telling the lie that the 9/11 hijackers came form Canada on the week of the event. That Canadian border security was at fault. Not the case. Though, in fairness there have been penetrations over the Canadian border, obviously, borders are not air tight, any more than the internal borders are even policed.
Don't bring handguns to the border while crossing into Canada. I have run into a fair number of US visitors, particularly hunters, who just didn't feel comfortable... I don't know what the rules at the border for other firearms are but you need to do some work before you try to cross from either direction. Bows, are still OK.
I respect the changes that have occurred, but it has certainly changed the way I look at the US, and being Canadian.
I don't travel to the US any more, though I will probably change that now that the kids are gone... I really didn't want to get locked up at the border with a pack of kids in the car.