Robert Dakin
To the editor:
The tourist season is up and running—and the crying already can be heard.
Members of NWOTA are complaining that their clients are being turned away at the border and our MP is doing his best to placate them.
Our border personnel uphold our laws and yet again they are made out to be the villains in the story of who should and shouldn’t be allowed into Canada. It seems that they, according to NWOTA and our MP, as well as our MPP, shouldn’t be applying the laws of Canada as vigorously as they do here in Fort Frances and Rainy River.
These laws have been in force as long as I can remember. After 9/11, the United States tightened up its border crossing procedures and Canada followed suit. Even before 9/11, the U.S. prohibited Canadians from crossing into their country even though their transgressions were decades old.
Forest fire fighters in their 30s and 40s, who had legal dealings with the police as young adults but never charged, were turned back because old, outdated information turned up on American computers.
Could it be that until 9/11, Canada was trying very hard to be a really good neighbour and people had become accustomed to easy entry?
Should we have been more like the U.S.? Maybe!
Last November, I wrote to NWOTA, with a copy to Howard Hampton and John Rafferty, and made several suggestions that I thought would help them resolve the problem.
The main suggestion was that they should advise their clients of the requirements for crossing into Canada. Information could be placed on the NWOTA web page, on members’ web pages, on literature at shows, in pamphlets, and on application forms.
NWOTA and its members could obtain directions from Canadian authorities regarding the procedure for expunging old records if feasible.
It is obvious that NWOTA chose to do nothing. Instead, they returned to their winter homes and let the problem fester over the winter.
Do they think Canada should change its laws to accommodate them? Is NWOTA derelict in its duty to its clients or do they think that they and their clients are above Canada’s laws simply because they spend money here?
(Signed),
Robert Dakin
Fort Frances, Ont.
