Canadian Officials Co-Operate To Make US Cross-Border Travel More Frightening

This line of questioning has been part of every exit interview since. The first time, the guard took my passport and kept it for about 30 minutes. Others--Canadians and foreigners as well as U.S. citizens--were getting similar queries, but mine took much longer. "We'll let the Canadians handle this," the guard said as he handed back the passport. Moments later, across the border, I heard a Quebecois immigration agent tell her colleague, gesturing at me, "He's the one." She, too, took my passport for quite awhile. "She came back with information from my FBI file-- I have a long record of political arrests from civil rights and anti-war actions. The Canadians said the FBI file showed a conviction in 1970 for a draft-board sit-in. The agent said I would be admitted only for two weeks and could not re-enter until my file was fully investigated. She told me she understood the conviction was for a political act with which "Canada agreed at the time," but said the Canadians had an agreement with the U.S. to investigate such cases. Full article here: http://counterpunch.org/pariah01302007.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on January 31, 2007]

Note: http://counterpunch.org...