[Toespi]

In complete agreement with you, and from my own experience this is why. My husband and I are Great Lake boaters, our home port and dockage is in the Port Clinton, Ohio region. Several times a season we go to Windsor, Ontario for gambling trips to the Windsor Casino. We take Lake Erie NW to the Detroit River ( border is about 20 miles into our trip) and Windsor is at the top of the River and across from Detroit joining Lake St. Clair. a total of about 55 miles. This is the procedure we are to follow for customs. We arrive at the marina where we have made overnight arrangements. We check in, calling by phone the Canadian Customs, give them our name, number of passengers and boat number/name and tell them how long we are staying. That is it! When we leave and it is not monitered we do not make any calls and there aren't ANY check ins back into the USA to verify that we do not have additional or less passengers on board. If one were inclined, they could smuggle drugs, weapons, or people onto their boat and be in US waters within an hour no one would know and frankly no one would care. We have never been CG check boarded nor have any other fellow boaters that also make this trip. While we are there, we take a cab from the marina to the casino. EVERY cabbie we have ever had has been an arrogant Middle Easterner, and the city of Windsor has a massive Arab population. This is a frightening border and every time we go, we are amazed at the the lack of security. It is a time bomb.

[rintense]

Amazing story about the waterways. As a Michigander, travel via boat from Canada to the US has been of great concern to me. It's almost as Canada wants to believe, 'oh not here!'. Maybe they believe if they are so liberal, the terrorists won't attack them. Sounds like simple enough thinking for Critien.