Fingerprinting Canadians

This appears to be another unbalanced on-again off-again issue , but rest assured that face-to-face Canadians are discussing what it could mean.

I thought to share with you my experience of being fingerprinted during my regular Crossings of the border by car at the Queenston crossing near Niagara Falls.

In September 1982 I arrived in Toronto from Singapore with only a British passport, no visa. I was granted the status of “Landed Immigrant”, certified by a sheet of paper stapled to a page of my British passport, and this served me well at crossing right along the border between Canada and the USA, by land and by air, until after the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

The USA dumped billions of dollars into border security and from then on, crossing by car at Queenston became an extended ritual. Instead of a 60-second “Where ya from” Where ya goin? Havvaniceday” I/we now had the passport(s) confiscated, directed to park over there, and in the immigration hall take a number, be called for an interview, be called again to fill out a white card, be called again for an interview, be finger printed, and called again for a third and final interview.

At this time I was free to pay $US6 to obtain a green card (no, not THAT one, a different one) that was valid for crossing INTO the USA for three months BUT that had to be handed back the minute I returned to Canada. See anything strange about that?

I got used to it. At that time I was dating a lady my age; WE got used to it. About six times a year we would leave Toronto at 9 a.m. Friday, reach the border at 10:30, slide into the extreme right-hand lane – Kiosk #10 – surrender passports and I would be interviewed in the immigration hall while my companion cooled her heels and waited for them to return her passport to me.

Sigh!

This of course consumed an hour of our holiday time.

As a side note, coming back INTO Canada in the early evening of Monday was no problem: “Where ya from? How long ya been in the USA? Buy anything? (Yes, some shirts) OK havanicenight” Sixty seconds tops.

On each entry to the USA we would edge forwards until We Were Next, and as I edged forwards I noticed two flash cameras going off ahead of us; I always supposed two went off behind us at the same time. Now the 407 ETR toll road could capture license plates at 100 Km/hr, so the border cameras could probably capture eye-shadow at 5 mph.

As we pulled up to the kiosk the guard would be staring down at his monitor/screen.

To this day I remain convinced that US Border Control had a good database record of us: Driver British citizen, Canadian landed immigrant, name, date of birth, passport number; Passenger Canadian citizen and owner of the Toyota Camry, name, date of birth, passport number. Same lane (#10) same time of day (10:30) same day of the week (Friday) Nothing different, time after time, and each time our passports would be confiscated and I would be fingerprinted.

Only on one of a few dozen crossings did I detect any empathy in the immigration hall. One inspector quietly asked me why I didn’t take out Canadian citizenship, and I thanked him and explained that under current Australian laws I could not hold more than two citizenships. I was British by birth but had taken out Australian citizenship at a mature age, so if I took out Canadian citizenship I would lose my Australian citizenship.

The Australian law has since changed. At that time I took out Canadian Citizenship and applied for a Canadian passport. After that it was a 60-second passage to enter the USA.

Note that I and my friend were the same people, same lane, same day of week, same time, same reason for entering the USA. Each time we were asked “Where are you staying tonight?” and I replied “ The Hampton Inn at Painted Post ”; I lied. We booked into a hotel wherever we found ourselves at 6 p.m. that Friday night.

Nothing had changed. I might have been a radical lecturer in Political Science at the University with explosives in the trunk for all they knew.

Perhaps they knew I was an inoffensive programmer who grew indoor plants. They sure had enough time (thirty years) to investigate me.

So why the needless interrogation at the border for ten or more years?

I believe that Border Patrol was given a budget and that budget had to be used up Or Else! And the easiest way to use of the budget was to over-staff the immigration hall(s) and make full use of them.

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