Drawing Lines in the Sand…Stupid, Ignorant Lines

Canada Border Services Agency is already in hot water for a scathing internal report suggesting that officers are allowing people into Canada with serious criminal pasts. Now a new story has surfaced showing an absurd extreme: CBSA officers acting as life councillors.

According to a story in the United Press International website, two Canadians were crossing back into Canada with a US citizen, Rose Kelley. Rose is on welfare. Why do I point that out? Because she was denied because she was on welfare. According to her account the border guard made these comments:

“A person on welfare shouldn’t be going on vacation.”

“You really should not come back to the border until your life drastically changes.”

When asked about the incident a CBSA spokesperson simply stated that visitors to Canada must show they can financially support themselves while in Canada.

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada website states:

To visit Canada, you must…have enough money for your stay. The amount of money you will need can vary with the circumstances of the visit, how long you will stay and whether you will stay in a hotel or with friends or relatives. For more information, ask the Canadian visa office in your country or region.

It also mentions further down the page…

You can also be inadmissible for security, health or financial reasons.

If Rose was crossing the border by herself, I could see how she would fall under these rules. But she was travelling with two Canadians who, presumably, she would be staying with.

There are always two sides of any story, and there are gaps that we don’t know about:

- Who are these two Canadians and what is their current status in Canada?

- Is there anything in Rose or her Canadian friend’s backgrounds that would have made the CBSA officers more suspicious?

Without knowing those answers, and just looking at the reported statements, the CBSA officer was out of line with his comments.

Border officers should only speak in regards to why someone isn’t being admissible, not to voice personal opinion of a social or economic class of people. Someone in that position saying that “A person on welfare shouldn’t go on vacation.” is just abusing the power that they’ve been given and as a Canadian I’m ashamed that a foreigner was subject to this type of commentary at our border.

Our CBSA officials have a tough job protecting our border but that doesn’t grant them liberties in the use of their authority.