<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Andrew Feldmar, a well-known Vancouver psychotherapist, rolled up to the Blaine border crossing last summer as he had hundreds of times in his career. At 66, his gray hair, neat beard, and rimless glasses give him the look of a seasoned intellectual. He handed his passport to the U.S. border guard and relaxed, thinking he would soon be with an old friend in Seattle. The border guard turned to his computer and Googled "Andrew Feldmar." The psychotherapist's world was about to turn upside down. The Blaine border guard explained that Feldmar had been pulled out of the line as part of a random search. He seemed friendly, even as he took away Feldmar's passport and car keys. While the contents of his car were being searched, Feldmar and the officer talked. He asked Feldmar what profession he was in. When Feldmar said he was psychologist, the official typed his name into his Internet search engine. Before long the customs guard was engrossed in an article Feldmar had published in the spring 2001 issue of the journal Janus Head. The article concerned an acid trip Feldmar had taken in London, Ontario, and another in London, England, almost forty years ago. It also alluded to the fact that he had used hallucinogenics as a "path" to understanding self and that in certain cases, he reflected, it could "be preferable to psychiatry." Everything seemed to collapse around him, as a quiet day crossing the border began to turn into a nightmare. ---------- "I didn't heed the ancient Alchemists' dictum, 'Do, dare, and be silent,'" Feldmar says. "And yet, the experience of being treated as undesirable was shocking. The helplessness, the utter uselessness of trying to be seen as I know myself and as I am known generally by those I care about and who care about me, the reduction of me to an undesirable offender, was truly frightening. I became aware of the fragility of my identity, the brittleness of a way of life. "Memories of having been the object of the objectifying gaze crowd into my mind. I have been seen and labeled as a Jew, as a Communist, as a D. P. (Displaced Person), as a student, as a patient, a man, a Hungarian, a refugee, an ?migr?, an immigrant.... Now I am being seen as one of those drug users, perhaps an addict, perhaps a dealer, one can't be sure. In the matter of a second, I became powerless, whatever I said wasn't going to be taken seriously. I was labeled, sorted and disposed of. Dismissed."</div> http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/04/23/Feldmar/ One thing that really got to me was this: <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. Border & Protection:</div><div class="quote_post">A crime involving <u>moral turpitude</u> is inadmissible and one of those areas is a violation of controlled substances.</div> Will someone call the Bureau of Morality then? Jesus Christ, what has this country come to, if we weigh "criminals" by moral values and not factual evidence that supports their imprisonment/banishment!
Travelling has really become a joke the last few years. Every border person is a prick who looks at you suspiciously. You have to strip down just to board a plane. You can't carry water with you, eventhough the AC completely dries out your throat, and the airlines won't give you water until the plane is in the air. I don't think it's just US Border agents either. This Candian prick in his booth was harrassing me when I gave him my passport. He asked me what my purpose was, I said I'm here to snowboard. Then he smirked, flipped through my passport and said "you sure travel to some exotic places," and asked if I also planned to do drugs or smuggle drugs. Then he went on to complain about all the Asians coming into Canada (my girlfriend is Asian) and pointed to the line of passengers who just arrived from Singapore Airlines.
That's ****** up. Racial profiling is not needed and solves nothing. I don't understand how we put such pricks on our borders to welcome visitors. You'd think we'd evaluate people on a more thorough basis before we gave them the job. Another thing, Canada has this thing where if you've gotten a DUI, you can't enter or something. I don't know the detailed rule, but I know a guy that was denied entry because he got a DUI eleven years earlier.
<div class="quote_poster">Sasha Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">That's ****** up. Racial profiling is not needed and solves nothing. I don't understand how we put such pricks on our borders to welcome visitors. You'd think we'd evaluate people on a more thorough basis before we gave them the job. Another thing, Canada has this thing where if you've gotten a DUI, you can't enter or something. I don't know the detailed rule, but I know a guy that was denied entry because he got a DUI eleven years earlier.</div> Yeah it's really unbelievable some of the remarks these pricks make when they're looking over your information. If you don't like tourists spending money in your country, then why do you apply for this job? As far as I'm concerned I'm paying for you to be employed, you should be kissing my ass.
Moral turpitude? That's friggin' ridiculous. Man, I hate crossing the border too. Every time I drive to New York I get "randomly selected." Waste of my time for no real reason. Another thing is how their policies are so dependent on the political relations between the two countries.
