It’s OK, She Was Just Kidding!

Remember all that rhetoric about how the US shouldn’t go light on one border (Can/US) and heavy on the other (Mex/US)?

Remember how outraged Canadians were over the idea that the US would see Canada’s border with the same scrutiny and fervour as the Mexican border even though Canada has none of the border issues that Mexico does?

Remember the 9/11 terrorist comment that Janet Napolitano made that brought to light the untrue myth that is still apparently living in some halls of Washington (as John McCain confirmed)?

Well let’s forget all that. Janet Napolitano is visiting Canada, and she’s apparently decided to take a different approach to the Canadian border now. At a news conference she was quoted as saying:

We're going to be using a different mix of manpower and technology between the ports of entry, for example, than we would at the southern border.

So, the law is the same but the techniques we use to implement that law will be differentiated because of the differences between Canada and Mexico.

So there’s good and bad in all this. The good is that the US has obviously listened to the rumblings coming from Canada. Whether this is just lip service to make nice while visiting Canada or not, that remains to be seen. But at the very least Ms. Napolitano has acknowledged the concerns, even if it is just in a soundbite. What her comments translate to as far as policy remains to be seen.

And that’s where the bad comes in. For the last year we’ve seen incidents of US CBP officers overstepping bounds when it comes to Canadians crossing over the border, specifically heightened to the perceived loss of American jobs to Canadians. We’ve also seen political heavyweights such as John McCain and Hilary Clinton both make public statements that the Canada/US border should be policed better. It’s obvious that there is a certain sentiment that has been built up towards how America views the Can/US border, and its not a positive one.

It’s great that the Secretary of Homeland Security is now saying that Canada’s border is different from the US/Mexico border, but the real weight of that statement will be determined in how many incidents of Canadians being accused of stealing American jobs or undergoing hassles at the border are reported in the coming year.