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Sorry I'm late to this, having read quite a bit, mainly about restrictions... Now here it is.
My BIL who is married to my older sister, has NOT gotten citizenship in the USA. He served in the army and he did get his visa renewed. BUT he got a DUI here in Washington, would he be prevented from going to Canada then?
It doesn't matter what citizenship. Any foreigner trying to enter Canada with a DUI may be denied entry.
We don't have specific laws targeting Americans...yet
Well last trip I took to Canada I did not enjoy at all. I was actually looking forward to it too.
My family booked a big rental house in northern Wisconsin and instead of driving the usual boring I-80, thought I'd take the northern loop across Ontario and then drop into the UP of Michigan which I had never driven across either.
I will not go into all the long details but basically the Canadian immigration people accused me of all sorts of nonsense criminal conspiracies and tossed my whole car, dumped everything on the ground. I had this one nutter maniac immigration officer screaming in my face and I had to stand there with my hands in the air in view of hundreds of people.
I told those pathetic D-bags I would be happy to return to the USA and take my tourist dollars elsewhere. And then they tossed my passport back at me and let me go. It took me a while to repack my car.
I went from being excited to do some exploring to being not very happy at all and it ruined the trip. Other than stopping at a few stores and eating a few meals, I just kept to the main road, stayed overnight and then got the hell out of the country.
Now I have an appreciation for why even though I don't live far from Canada at all, no one here is going hey let's go to Canada for a concert or for a weekend or for some shopping or whatever. Canada may as well be on another planet as far as any locals here are concerned, we never hear about it at all.
My greater family is interested in renting a large house in the Atlantic Provinces for summer vacation and before we do the plan is that I will do some recon. It's already been decided that next time I go if I get treated like garbage at the border, we will pull our plans and go somewhere else in New England instead. We probably drop $15-$25K over one week into the local economy with the big house rental and all the other costs. So hey if Canada wants to flip the bird at tourists, we can take our money and time and energy elsewhere.
Interesting the way your mind works.
So IF your story is accurate, one experience with one border guard and you want revenge on the whole country.
I've driven the Alaska Highway about 17 times and have never been searched. Three of those times I was pulling a trailer...two utility trailers and a travel trailer.
I was just thinking the only times I have been searched was twice, going to Alaska for work and, obviously moving. We had an older truck pretty full of 'stuff' and might have looked a little 'iffy' or something. Oh, and once going from Detroit into Canada with a pickup and camper. They went through the whole thing and found some bullets in a drawer. That, of course, led to a 'conversation'. lol We had left any guns at home but overlooked the bullets. I've been in and out and through Canada quite a few times and never got searched just driving through or visiting for the day. Just answer a gazillion questions!
DH worked part-time as Police Reserve after he retired. I can just about expect that we will be detained whenever he's along and we cross a border. I guess they sense something alert about him that triggers the search. Kinda humorous.
I've never had a problem except when I was young and dumb and smarted off to a border agent in CA. They taught me to take it all more seriously.
A long-time friend and long-haul trucker used to take his kids on "vacation" sometimes with him when there was no time off. He told me a hair-raising story about crossing in his rig with them across the Canadian border. They immediately took his kids away from him and into an interrogation room trying to find out if he was abducting them. Scared the kids half to death.
Parent abductions are so common now that I have mixed feelings about this. Glad they are keeping a sharp eye on possible child abuse. But how many times are the children actually being saved from a poor court judgement that is imprisoning the child in the wrong home?
I do have another classmate who successfully abducted his children from his mentally ill and abusive wife back in the day when the mother almost always got custody. It was literally years of legal nightmare for him. Another subject.
I've made a fair number of trips to Canada, but only about five in my own car. When questioned on one of those trips about what I was bringing with me, I made specific reference to having no tobacco, liquor, or drugs, but it was only a very astute Canadian Customs official who thought to advise me about restrictions on firearms.
Not much of a problem for me, since while I'm a strong believer in Second Amendment rights, I don't engage in sport hunting, and have never fired anything bigger than a .22-caliber rifle (and that in a Phys Ed elective while in college).
But the father of a close friend from my high school years ran a small specialty-print shop as a sole proprietor -- and he had a fair amount of labor trouble; so he kept an automatic under the front seat of his car. And to this day I wonder what might have happened if he'd inadvertently taken the gun along on a short-notice trip to Canada -- and it had been discovered.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 05-13-2019 at 07:16 AM..
DH worked part-time as Police Reserve after he retired. I can just about expect that we will be detained whenever he's along and we cross a border. I guess they sense something alert about him that triggers the search. Kinda humorous.
.
That's odd. Normally if you're related to law enforcement in any way in your home country, that will speed you through the check.
Border security screening are tougher, but I have never felt that the Canadian border guards were trying to make it hard for us to get back in. They don't make the laws regarding duty and taxes.
What evidence do you have for saying they were trying to impress the US? Sounds odd to me.
I also never got the finger pointing at Canada. Yes the lies about the 9/11 terrorists coming from Canada were lies, but I like to point out to Americans that even if Canada had NO border screenings and let in anyone, we are not responsible for who YOU let into the US. That is not Canada's job.
I'm not sure if you remember, but this type of 'criticism' by the US was put on us for most of the 2000s. Basically Canada had to shape up and be more like the US.
This lead to a stronger, border deal under Harper and Obama basically leading Canada to become more like the US. I can't find all the articles, but there was constant criticism and pressure from the US before and even for a time afterwards. That's my 'evidence' and observation. A lot of this is in the public record and actual changes made to Canadian Border Services.
Even this
Quote:
Canada has also pledged to ratchet up scrutiny on foreigners – even from countries that don't need a visa to come to Canada. Citizens of countries that require no visa for Canada will be obliged complete a form before arrival that supplies what officials refer to as visa-type information .
Quote:
The federal communications plan says the United States still feels Canada is not doing enough to guard against terrorism.
"Notwithstanding our significant investment to date, a perception exists in the U.S. that Canada has not focused enough on security," the Public Safety document says. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...rticle1319079/
Now they would never say publically "scrutinize even Canadians coming back in more" but that's easily observable for people who have experience coming back into Canada pre-911 from the US let's say via land crossing where they would just wave people in. It's been a culture and organizational shift to be more militant. Remember the pressure to get guns for the Border Patrol a few years ago?
But the father of a close friend from my high school years ran a small specialty-print shop as a sole proprietor -- and he had a fair amount of labor trouble; so he kept an automatic under the front seat of his car. And to this day I wonder what might have happened if he'd inadvertently taken the gun along on a short-notice trip to Canada -- and it had been discovered.
It would depend on whether he had declared it to Canada Customs or not.
If he declared it, he likely would have been given the choice of surrendering the gun to Canada Customs (he wouldn't get it back, and it would be sent for destruction) and continuing into Canada, or turning around and returning to the US with it. In the latter case, he would be fine to return to Canada, if he stored the gun somewhere in the US, and did not bring it with him when he came back.
If he did not declare it, and it was found during a Customs search, then the gun would be seized (it would not be returned, ever; and would be sent for destruction), and he would be facing criminal charges. I'm not far from a major border crossing, and we get maybe one of these matters in the local courthouse per month. Occasionally, it is intentional smuggling, but mostly it seems to be "I forgot I had my gun with me." At any rate, the person suffers the loss of the gun, gains a Canadian criminal record, and is handed a hefty fine, at the very least.
It is possible to bring most types of guns into Canada for legitimate purposes (hunting, competition, etc. but note that protection is not a legitimate purpose in Canada), but it requires advance planning, mostly in terms of forms and permits and fees. In addition to the paperwork, Canadian rules for storage and transportation would have to be followed when in Canada--which means, no putting it under the seat of his car.
In short, if you have any sort of weapon (guns, brass knuckles, pepper spray, etc.) and want to come to Canada, always declare it or them to Canada Customs. Nothing bad will happen. But if you do not declare it or them, there can be severe consequences.
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