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Has The Berlin Wall Been Reassembled In Canada?


cwoper

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O.K. here's the story.Myself (CWOPER) and Punkers had planed a fast trip to Canada from southern Ohio to Cache.I wanted to be able to say that I had Cached in two countries.So,with 60 Caches programed into our GPSs(not all Canada,some Michigan,some Ohio)we headed out in the early morn. 5 or 6 hours later we arrived at the U.S. and Canadian border in Detroit/Windsor,7:30ish Ohio time.The Canadian border guards then precieded to bombard us with questions and unwarented suspision.They could not believe that we were going to stay in Canada for just one day.It was like "hiking in Canada,why would you want to do something like that,it makes no sence,your up to no good Americans."Then the bombshell hit,It was like a scean out of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant..."Have you ever been arested...?"I had not,but punker's had,...a D.U.I. two years ago.Now its over to the next border guard for more intensive intarigation...the same stuff only now they have a dangerious AMERICAN at thier border.When he got done with us,it was immigrations turn to hassel us,and believe me they did.Threats of jail for trying to cross the border with a criminal record, stupid Americans should know better.Know what better? He got poped with a DUI and paid the price two years ago!!! Needless to say,we were "DE"nied as undesirabils.With Passports, birthcertificates and drivers licences in hand, we were pointed back to the U.S. and told never try this again for 10 years are pay some money to be reinstated. Needless to say, we had the best time Caching in Michigan and upstate Ohio,and bumbed very little.May :rolleyes: God bless Canada,they need all the help they can get.

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You've been denied entry to America Jr. No biggie. I did enjoy tipping at some of the uh.. "Gentlemen's clubs" in Windsor with Canadian money, though. It was like 33% off strippers sale.

 

Too bad they don't worry as much about people, terrorists among them, entering Canada from other countries to get to the US.

 

You are in Ohio? Go to Minnesota and cache, that's like a foriegn country.

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Yup, shoulda pretented you were drunk, held out a five dollar bill while bitching about another toll and then said you were headed for the casino.

 

I find that when I'm in the buckeye with those speed limits and a speed nazi every two miles, I feel like a........ (insert favourite supressed visible minority from a third world dictatorship HERE) :rolleyes:

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As a Canadian, we have the same problems entering the US. If you have ever been convicted of any criminal charge you are barred from ever entering the US without first applying for, and being granted, amnesty. That includes DUI or simple assault convictions. I believe Canada modelled their entrance restrictions on the American model. :rolleyes:

 

Lately, if I am travelling to one of our branch offices in the US for a business meeting I have to apply for a visa to enter the US legally. I used to travel down to Washington state monthly to shop or go skiing or camping but they've made it such a hassle to cross the border that, with the resulting lineups at US Customs, it isn't worth the effort any longer.

 

The grass really isn't any greener on either side of the fence...

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when i tell canadian border guards that i am going to hunt tupperware in canada, and no, i don't know how long i'll be staying, or even where i'm going, they ask me if i'm carrying and weapons or tobacco products and they wave me cheerily by.

 

it is the american border guards who have gotten all surly and suspect when i tell them i went to canada to go snowshoeing (don't you have snow at HOME?) or tupperware hunting (dead drop?)

 

sometimes i get the distinct impression that the only reason they don't want to search my car is that i look like the kind of person who has WAY too much stuff and probably eats things they find under dirty laundry. (a cookie? bonus.)

 

imagine me explaining to the border guard that the reason i have a dozen shoeboxes (all the same kind of shoe) is because my mom gives me the boxes because my rats like to sleep in them. the guard takes my word that the boxes are all empty, but looks cranky that eventually, i'll either have to be let back into the US by consent, or the canadians will deport me. either way, i get to go home.

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... we arrived at the U.S. and Canadian border in Detroit/Windsor,7:30ish Ohio time.The Canadian border guards then precieded to bombard us with questions and unwarented suspision...

Next time that happens, put an ammo box under each arm, GPSr in one hand and run as fast as you can across the border and maybe, just maybe, you'll make it. hehehe.

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If both countries did a better job at the airports and shipyards then they could quit worrying about the border. Hell I like the idea of having the worlds longest formery ungarded border.

I know, i always thought it was cool that we could have an ungaurded boarder with them,

 

BTW: I believe that there are many hiking trails that cross the border in unmarked, unpatrolled areas and I know many people used to go across that way and it used to be legal but I have no idea what it is like anymore

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Isn't it the US Government that has been critical of the security at Canadian points of entry. So we start asking a bunch of questions.. like you asked us to, and you get pissed.

 

As for the criminal record thing.. you can't go into either country if you have a conviction, same policy on both sides of the border.

 

Now, I have crossed into the US several times, and my only reason was "We are just going for a drive" Now I'll admit this was pre-911, and I had a wife and 2 babies in the car so I am pretty sure that helped me though.

 

Just say you are going shopping next time, you will be fine.

 

Scott

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BTW: I believe that there are many hiking trails that cross the border in unmarked, unpatrolled areas and I know many people used to go across that way and it used to be legal but I have no idea what it is like anymore

 

If that's how it was once, it's not anymore. Folks hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, for example, must apply for a permit to cross into Canada at the border and continue on to the first town and transportation back to the U.S. Or they have to turn around an spend a day hiking back to the nearest roadcrossing in Washington.

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Sorry for my ignorance, but what does DUI mean? Driving under influence or something?

Yep. Also known as DWI - driving while intoxicated.

You're showing your age, Bull Moose. :rolleyes:

It was DWI, Driving While Intoxicated, way back when the only problem was alcohol. As drugs became more widely used it was changed to the more accurate DUI, Driving Under the Influence (of anything that could be detrimental to your driving ability.)

I have often thought that they should be able to charge people wth DWS, Driving While Stupid. :ph34r:

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Sorry for my ignorance, but what does DUI mean? Driving under influence or something?

Yep. Also known as DWI - driving while intoxicated.

You're showing your age, Bull Moose. :rolleyes:

It was DWI, Driving While Intoxicated, way back when the only problem was alcohol. As drugs became more widely used it was changed to the more accurate DUI, Driving Under the Influence (of anything that could be detrimental to your driving ability.)

I have often thought that they should be able to charge people wth DWS, Driving While Stupid. :P

Colorado has two versions of this:

 

DUI = Driving Under the Influence (of alcohol or drugs)

 

DWAI = Driving While Ability Impaired (if your drunk but not LEGALLY drunk and get busted)

 

Why do I know this? I work in law enforcement (I have NEVER and will NEVER drink and drive).

 

I only went to Canada once when I was 16 (pre pre pre 9-11). We said we were visiting a cousin in Canada and would be there for a week, showed our ID's and went right across the border. I had no idea it would be so hard to go there now but I guess it's understandable nowadays. :ph34r:

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It seems to all depend on who you get at customs. I've been into Canada many many times. Mostly heading into Windsor for the casino. Sometimes they'll ask where I'm from, where I'm going, and send me on my way. I've even had times where they didn't check ID (pre 9/11). Other times I've sat there for 5 minutes while they question me. The only real "trouble" I've gotten in, shortly after 9/11 I was at Niagara Falls, and coming back across into the US they asked to check the trunk of my car. At this time I had never heard of caching, but for years I've used an ammo can for a tool box. So there it was sitting in the trunk. The only other thing in there was a large black duffle bag....one of those big military surplus jobbies....which was serving as my suitcase. I had opened the trunk and stepped to the side of the car to stay out of the gentleman's way. I saw his eyes go wide as he slowly took a couple steps back. After a second he told me to open the ammo can. I did, and that was enough to convince him that I wasn't up to anything, since it was full of misc. tools and such. He never did check the "suitcase" which didn't matter because all he would have found was clothes.

 

They usually sometimes ask if you're bringing in tobacco (going either way), once time, going into Canada, they asked me that. I said "no" because all I had was one pack of cigarettes, and I didn't think about it. The woman saw them sitting on my passenger seat, pointed to them, and asked "are you sure?" I answered "Well, I've got this one pack." She laughed, and explained that she had to do her job, that I had to mention if I even had just one single cigarette, and sent me on my way.

 

So like I said, it just depends on who you get and what kind of day they're having.

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I found it amazingly easy for me to get over the border on I-5 a couple of weeks ago. Easier yet on the return. I told them that I was a business man looking to buy in Canada. They jumped all over that. On the way back, our guys gave me no trouble either. They did, however, warn me to bring a passport next time. That is different than I remember pre 911.

 

Ironically, I was on business, didn't have a lot of time, and failed in my only attempt to find a cache. No foreign cache finds yet. Oh well. Now I have to go back.

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I haven't had any trouble entering the US since I applied for advance clearance. Now when I get to Detroit on my motorcycle, I just cruise thru that nice little express lane on the far right, show my ID, the guy waves and I'm off. I think it's worth the $80CND to avoid the questioning.

And the answer to the question is always Casino/Bingo when coming to Windsor.

 

Wulf

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I never had any trouble crossing the border into Canada or coming back. I've heard that having a DUI on your record can be troublesome for getting into Canada. I find the Canadian border officials are usually a bit more polite. The Americans tend to be a bit more abrubt and totally lacking humor. Although, the last time I came back from Canada, the American border guy called me a "cradle robber" when he noticed on our papers that my wife was 10 years younger than me. We all got a laugh at that one. So sometimes they're OK. Traveling with children gets you a bit more scrutiny either way. They asked our kids one time what they call us. I was afraid they were going to say dumb and dumber, but they came through with mommy and daddy.

 

Then there's Mexico where they just wave you in. And $20 handles most minor traffic infractions, real or otherwise. But the Mexican police have to buy their own bullets and his kids need shoes more than yours do.

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Send those border guards down here to the AZ-Mexico border, we can use them right away....

we need as many of them here in AZ as we can get, I live right along a popular foot trail for them there UDAs, border agents need to worry more about UDAs and terrorists than some guy with a DUI a few years ago

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I just tell the border guards (Washington State / British Columbia) That you guy's (Canadians) have better pot, than we do. I won't Bring any back or drive intoxacated. Thats against the law. Please & Thank you". Most of the times there jaws hit the ground and wave me by. :lol::):)

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When I was in grad school, our lab went to Toronto for a conference on yeast. Coming back into the US, the car had 3 US citizens, one naturalized citizen, one with a green card and another on a student visa. We were expecting to pull over and have people show their papers. he looked at the papers at teh booth and asked why we were in Canada. After telloing him why, he looked at us very seriously and said " You're studying yeast- where's the beer? Next time bring back some of that good Canadian beer with you!" We were all "beered out" because Labats and Molsons were two of the sponsors of that scinetific conference.

Edited by Wacka
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Hey jack. Get over the America Jr. crap. We're the biggest country in "America". We just don't see the need to overcompensate for our lacks with large collections of long hard missles. If you think we're just another state, you've never spent any time getting to know a Canuck!

:)

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I find the Canadian border officials are usually a bit more polite. The Americans tend to be a bit more abrubt and totally lacking humor.

Socialists know other socialists. You probably have a secret hand sign that you showed without even realizing it. They appreciate your fight and sacrifices in creating the new world order. The infiltration of the Constitutional Republic of the United States of America with idealistic liberal political correctness. :)

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Two second hand stories:

 

A friend of mine used to be a trucker and had to go to Canada often. One time, a border guard (side?) told him that if he didn't hand over the pic of his incredibly hot wife in a bikini he was gonna hold the truck for hours 'searching' for illegal contraban. The guard wanted it for his own collection. He didn't get it, but my friend did spend 4 hours answering questions & watching guards search his empty truck. Again, I don't know which side...

 

Another (this time an idiot) I knew thought it would be funny to mess with the border guards (1980's here, not post 9-11), so he told them he had explosives in the car. He thought it would be funny. He didn;t find it funny when the guards literally dissected his car looking for the explosives. Tore the seats out and everything. Whether they just wanted to teach him a lesson or were CYA I don't know, but he never did that again. Well, to my knowledge. I don't think he would be THAT stupid....

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Again, I don't know which side...

...and it's not important even. I wish people (in general, not necessarily you n00b) would consider other people's actions more as their own, than as their country's (or religion's, sexual orientation's, [insert another irrelevant attribute here], etc) official practice. The same goes with calling people ignorant and in the same time talking black-and-white about things like 'socialist Europe'. Hello, there are 44 countries in there, most of which have a democratic multi-party system. Ignorance is to see it all as a one socialist (or whatever homogenous mass) area. The world is not just divided in socialist/conservative or black/white or good/bad, the people are not just mannequins of their nationality.

 

So much for the soapbox, in this case, the guard clearly abused his official position. I doubt his actions were straight from the US or Canadian border guard rule book. In the case that started the thread: if it really is forbidden to enter Canada if you've been arrested in your past, then the guards just did their job, how ridiculous it sounds (to me too).

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As a former US border guard, then known as an Immigration Inspector, I had worked in northeastern NY and at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, NY, for over five years. The rules for border crossing were tough back then when it came to law breakers; they are even tougher now, and the customs/immigration laws are forever evolving to keep up with societal changes.

 

We had only seconds to make judgments about the folks presenting themselves to us. When folks came to my booth and were polite, answered the questions without hesitation and had proper documents, I had no trouble being businesslike. When we got smarta** answers, we had to put on a harda** attitude. This was the same for fake documents, people who lied about what they brought back from Canada, and Canadians coming in with a one-way ticket to Florida. Remember, these folks are just doing their jobs, which have gotten tougher since 9-11-01.

 

I'm glad I don't work there any more; it was hard to work six days a week, working a different shift every week. Most of the time, I tried to keep up my sense of humor on the job, but we all have our grumpy days. So, folks, please be polite; they are only doing what they need to do to keep their countrymen (that includes women) safe.

 

As for the wide open spaces between official border crossings, there has been electronic monitoring of those spaces, and coverage by the U.S. Border Patrol of those spaces, for longer than any of you realize.

 

PeachyPA

former INS

Punxsutawney, PA

Edited by PeachyPA
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Oh. As for the original question: Has The Berlin Wall Been Reassembled In Canada? The Berlin Wall was 165,7 kilometers long, and the US-Canada border is 8893 km. That makes the wall cover only about 1,86 % of the border. Even less, since part of the wall was left in Berlin as memorials. Actually, you can call yourself quite lucky since you happened to hit right on the wall-part of the border. :)

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Way back in 2000 three of my co-workers and I spent four days in Toronto partying it up. Why did we drive all the way from Pittsburgh, PA to Toronto? FOr the adventure and the the legal drinking age is 19. Two of my co-workers where under 21. On crossing the boarder back into the US they asked if we had anything to declare "A couple mountian dews, some bomb a** nachos and Tony's major hangover that won't quit" Reason for visiting; "partying." And we got waved through. I'm sure now that wouldn't be an acceptable answer. Now that was a great roadtrip. I had a nacho cheese stain on my dashboard that never did come out.

 

I only wished I new about caching then, I could have picked up some caches while I was there. We did find the people of Toronto to be very friendly and welcoming to us. The cabbies where the best that I have ever run into, anywhere...

 

Now if we could have only gotten used to those $1 and $2 coins

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I live in Michigan and have cached in Canada 3 or 4 times. Once going across at the Port Huron/Sarnia border and the other times the Detroit/Windsor border. Going only to cache. I explain that I am going to hike, for supper, I even mentioned geocaching once and the Canadian guard let that one go without trying to figure it out.

I guess I went one other time when I was visiting friends in Cambridge but I had a different reason for crossing.

Sometimes I drive over to Stratford for a Shakespeare play for the day. No problem. I must look harmless. I have done this both before and after 9-11. The difference is how long it takes go get through customs and that now I have my passport.

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One of the most interesting border stories I ever heard involved two guys on bikes. Aparrently they were in Canada on a main road to the American border, and along comes a jerk in a full pickup truck with a tarp. Pickup truck driver did something REALLY obnoxious and potentially dangerous to the bicyclists... I forget what... and laid a string of obcenities on top of it instead of apologizing. Then the jerk took off again south.

 

The bike guys found a phone booth, called the border authority and said: "There's a pickup truck heading your way. We think he is carrying illegal drugs. Here is the vehicle description." The authority thanked them and they hung up.

 

They rode to the border... and there was the pickup, all torn up, stuff everywhere, one uniformed guy holding one package up to the jerks face and yelling questions at him.

 

The bikers sailed on by. One of them caught the jerk's eye, then smiled and waved. Jerk completely freaked out, and tried to escape the officers, pounding on them in order to escape and go after the bikers.

 

The story ended with "and you can guess what happened from there!" I assume that means the jerk he never did get to go over the border for a very long time! Don't piss off smart people on bicycles! :)

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I've just got to comment on this. I live in a border city on the Canadian side of the bridge. Prior to 9/11, the border was just a formality, at least that's what it felt like. We'd go over to our sister city for dining, shopping, social events, etc. no problem. The US border guards were polite and professional but rarely abusive. Even after 9/11. Now they are abrupt, unprofessional and commonly abusive. Last summer I tried to cross the border to go "geocaching" but was turned back because the US border guard thought my Birth Certificate looked suspicious. I have no criminal record, I have close relatives that are American Citizens and I don't look like no terrorist! I have to believe the rougher treatment now experienced at the border is more political then a genuine security enhancement. I hope that one day we can return to a more civil border entry.

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Remember that once you get between the customs booths at the border, it is a no man's land. They can strip search you and do a cavity search if they want. They can totally disassemble your car and make YOU put it back together.

My father worked for a trucking company that hauled sides of beef (this is in the 60's). They were told to go and transfer a load of bef from a truck that had come from Canada to one of the company's trucks. After they transferred the load, the customs guy came around and asked what was going on. Even though they told him the boss was the one who told them to do it, the customs people held them for 4 hours. Luckily there were no cavity searches!

Edited by Wacka
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They can strip search you and do a cavity search if they want.

When its your job to do cavity searches on people crossing the border, then you know you are at the bottom of the totem pole. Can you imagine having to cavity search someone that looked like John Madden or Rosie O'Fatty, ick. Now if Paris Hilton needs a cavity search thats another story (bring in on), however, I thinking most cavity searches are hideous.

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I had the same problem getting into Canada once. I travelled to Canada once a month, sometimes twice in a month. I had been going into Canada for about 5 months when I was hit with the same question. I also had a DUI 16 years previous. That set off all the alarms. I had to play along with them because I had to get in for work. Remember I had been already getting in for work for about 5 months at this point. I was grilled about my DUI back in my college days. How come a Canadian cant do your job up here? They really asked that. Anyways, I had to fill out an application for rehabilitation. On the app. I had to state why I wasnt a threat if I was to enter Canada. It was like being in high school all over. I gave them the exact dates of when I was arrested and for what and all the details. 5 hours later and one missed connection I had to pay 200 dollars(Canadian) and I got a paper that says that I am no longer described in A19(2)(a.1)(I) of the Immigration Act because of your conviction for the offecne of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated in (my town) on or about March or April of 1989.

I told them the exact date, 12-8-1988, and they cant even get that right on their paperwork. It was all BS. So I had to go into Canada the very next week again. They just let me right on through. I said wait a minute bud. Check this out. I pulled out the 200 dollar piece of paper they gave me the week before and showed it to the guy. He could care less. Canada's immigration is a joke. The terrorists have no problems getting in and setting up shop, bud watch out if you have legitimate business to attend to and had a DUI 16 years earlier.

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You've been denied entry to America Jr. No biggie. I did enjoy tipping at some of the uh.. "Gentlemen's clubs" in Windsor with Canadian money, though. It was like 33% off strippers sale.

 

Too bad they don't worry as much about people, terrorists among them, entering Canada from other countries to get to the US.

 

You are in Ohio? Go to Minnesota and cache, that's like a foriegn country.

O.K. this is a serious question I've always wondered. Since they dont have dollar bills and the smallest bill is a $5, how do you tip the dancers?

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