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Take the case of 55-year-old Lake Tahoe resident Greg
Felsch. Stopped at the border in Vancouver this month at the start of a
planned five-day ski trip, he was sent back to the United States because
of a DUI conviction seven years ago. Not that he had any idea what was
going on when he was told at customs: "Your next stop is immigration.''
Felsch was ushered into a room. "There must have been 75
people in line," he says. "We were there for three hours. One woman was
in tears. A guy was sent back for having a medical marijuana card. I
felt like a felon with an ankle bracelet.''
Or ask the well-to-do East Bay couple who flew to British
Columbia this month for an eight-day ski vacation at the famed Whistler
Chateau, where rooms run to $500 a night. They'd made the trip many
times, but were surprised at the border to be told that the husband
would have to report to "secondary'' immigration.
There, in a room he estimates was filled with 60 other
concerned travelers, he was told he was "a person who was inadmissible
to Canada.'' The problem? A conviction for marijuana possession.
In 1975.
Welcome to the new world of border security. Unsuspecting
Americans are turning up at the Canadian border expecting clear sailing,
only to find that their past -- sometimes their distant past -- is
suddenly an issue.
While Canada officially has barred travelers convicted of
criminal offenses for years, attorneys say post-9/11
information-gathering, combined with a sweeping agreement between Canada
and the United States to share data, has resulted in a spike in phone
calls from concerned travelers.
They are shocked to hear that the sins of their youth
might keep them out of Canada. But what they don't know is that this is
just the beginning. Soon other nations will be able to look into your
past when you want to travel there.
"It's completely ridiculous,'' said Chris Cannon, an
attorney representing the East Bay couple, who asked that their names
not be used because they don't want their kids to know about the pot
rap. "It's a disaster. I mean, who didn't smoke pot in the '70s?''
We're about to find out. And don't think you are in the
clear if you never inhaled. Ever get nabbed for a DUI? How about
shoplifting? Turn around. You aren't getting in.
"From the time that you turn 18, everything is in the
system,'' says Lucy Perillo, whose Canada Border Crossing Service in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, helps Americans get into the country.
Canadian attorney David Lesperance, an expert on customs
and immigration, says he had a client who was involved in a fraternity
prank 20 years ago. He was on a scavenger hunt, and the assignment was
to steal something from a Piggly Wiggly supermarket. He got caught, paid
a small fine and was ordered to sweep the police station parking lot.
He thought it was all forgotten. And it was, until he
tried to cross the border.
The official word from the Canadian Border Services
Agency is that this is nothing more than business as usual. Spokesman
Derek Mellon gets a little huffy when asked why the border has become so
strict.
"I think it is important to understand that you are
entering another country,'' Mellon says. "You are not crossing the
street.''
OK, but something changed here, didn't it?
"People say, 'I've been going to Canada for 20 years and
never had a problem,' '' Lesperance says. "It's classic. I say, 'Well,
you've been getting away with it for 20 years.' ''
A prior record has always made it difficult to cross the
border. What you probably didn't know was that, as the Canadian
Consulate's Web site says, "Driving while under the influence of alcohol
is regarded as an extremely serious offense in Canada.''
So it isn't as if rules have stiffened. But what has
changed is the way the information is gathered. In the wake of 9/11,
Canada and the United States formed a partnership that has dramatically
increased what Lesperance calls "the data mining'' system at the border.
The Smart Border Action Plan, as it is known, combines
Canadian intelligence with extensive U.S. Homeland Security information.
The partnership began in 2002, but it wasn't until recently that the
system was refined.
"They can call up anything that your state trooper in
Iowa can,'' Lesperance says. "As Canadians and Americans have begun
cooperating, all those indiscretions from the '60s are going to come
back and haunt us.''
Now, there's a scary thought. But the irony of the East
Bay couple's situation is inescapable. Since their rowdy days in the
'70s, they have created and sold a publishing company, purchased
extensive real estate holdings and own a $3 million getaway home in Lake
Tahoe.
"We've done pretty well since those days,'' she says.
"But what I wonder is how many other people might be affected.''
The Canadian Border Services Agency says its statistics
don't show an increase in the number of travelers turned back. But
Cannon says that's because the "data mining'' has just begun to pick up
momentum.
"It is too new to say,'' he says. "Put it this way. I am
one lawyer in San Francisco, and I've had four of these cases in the
last two years, two since January. And remember, a lot of people don't
want to talk about it (because of embarrassment).''
Asked if there were more cases, attorney Lesperance was
emphatic.
"Oh, yeah,'' he says. "Just the number of calls I get has
gone up. If we factor in the greater ability to discover these cases, it
is just mathematically logical that we are going to see more.''
The lesson, the attorneys say, is that if you must travel
to Canada, you should apply for "a Minister's Approval of
Rehabilitation" to wipe the record clear.
Oh, and by the way, if you don't need to travel to
Canada, don't think you won't need to clear your record. Lesperance says
it is just a matter of time before agreements are signed with
governments in destinations like Japan, Indonesia and Europe.
"This,'' Lesperance says, "is just the edge of the
wedge.''
Who would have thought a single, crazy night in college
would follow you around the world?
Rules for getting into Canada
For more information on offenses that prohibit entry to
Canada, go to the Canadian Consulate's Web site at
geo.international.gc.ca/can-am/seattle/visas/inadmissible-en.asp.
For more information on visiting Canada, go to
cic.gc.ca.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/23/NEVIUS.TMP
This article was submitted by Jonathan D. Rands.
Jonathan
Rands
is well known throughout Washington State and in particular in Whatcom
and Skagit Counties for his creative, uncompromising and tenacious
defense of citizens accused of DUI. Jonathan heads
Fox Bowman Duarte's Bellingham office and has earned his reputation
as a premier DUI defense attorney one case at a time. He has taken over
100 DUI cases to trial by jury. He has argued over one hundred
Department of Licensing administrative hearings and persuaded appellate
courts to stay administrative suspensions in over fifty cases. Mr. Rands
believes that each client is entitled to the best possible legal
defense.
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