Reliving The Terrifying Hours When My Van Was Searched By Canadian Border Services On My Way Home From A Dog Show

55 Replies to “Reliving The Terrifying Hours When My Van Was Searched By Canadian Border Services On My Way Home From A Dog Show”

1. reminds me of the time we lived in st kitts aka st catharines (with an ‘a’). was doing some reno work and aha! happened to spot some matching (hard to find) paneling in a US reno store so I picked it up after slicing it to fit the hatchback.
   got to the border inspection: ‘anything to declare?’.
   I couldn’t help it. burst out laughing at this hugely obvious ‘import’ sticking out he back of the trunk so much so I apologized to the guard.
   my rule regarding the border: DONT FRIGGIN SMUGGLE ANYTHING. they are inordinately good at spotting the nervous ticks and stuttering that leads to um, ‘eureka’ moments.
   I do NOT take offense at inspections and in fact have been know to sincerely thank them for their vigilance.
   a.k.a. tsk tsk tsk Aussie.

2. Family has been in the horse biz for generations. Used to make the border crossing all the time…always could be a real pain in the nether regions, not always, but quite often(God help you if somebody didn’t do the paperwork right or in a timely manner on either end and your got a cranky border official; and then there was the rush to get there on time so you didn’t have to wait with a trailer load for them to show up the next day — good times, good times…didn’t care about the people in the trailer, but by golly your paperwork on the equines had better be tip top).
   Mexican border was even more of a soup sandwich.
   Glad I’m retired for more than one reason.

3. Excuse me, but just what exactly are “brown people things” that these supposed brown people do? (a lot of them are not that, uh, brown, in fact, some of them are similar in complexion to folks in my, white according to the census and all official forms filled on, family — or did the Caucasian race just become limited to blonde, blue-eyed, pinkish toned people? are you aware of the complexion of many Bosnians and Chechens?)
   And are you sure that it’s just brown people who do these things? I’ve perhaps heard to the contrary, maybe.

4. I should probably qualify that I don’t have a problem with border inspection; my stance has always been — do it better. If I’m going to get headaches, then at least make it worthwhile (PS. have had the same situation with Canadian guards…that whole “nice and polite Canadians” I knew was a myth by the time I was in my teens, which has been a while back).
   Because I know that things have passed through in years past.
   If people get their panties in a twist over it, well…yeah…too bad.

5. My white son is married to a mocha-colored bi-racial woman of high intellect … witness her PhD in microbiology. There is nothing “strange” about her skin tone or heritage. And she shares the exact same values as we do … as do her parents … who did a fabulous job raising her.
   Pathetic losers are the ones who did not LEARN a single thing from MLK’s “I have a dream” speech … like UnoNothing