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U.S., Canadian border bosses slam critics before G-20 meeting -- We're not a sieve
Toronto Sun ^ | November 17, 2001 | Anne Dawson -- Ottawa Bureau Chief

Posted on 11/17/2001 2:23:42 AM PST by Clive

 OTTAWA -- Call it "Put up or shut up."

 It's the new approach U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says he's taking, along with Finance Minister Paul Martin, to put critics of the Canada-U.S. border to the test.

 O'Neill said he's heard all the reports about Canada being a staging ground for terrorists and a sieve that allows evil-doers to enter the United States and he doesn't buy it.

 "I've heard these things and ... what we resolved is we need to take these vague ideas and run them to the ground," O'Neill told reporters after meeting with Martin before the G-20 meeting began yesterday.

 "Where these (accusations) turn out to be just vague generalizations and accusations, we will bring the people who are making them to the table ... and prove to them that they're wrong."

 O'Neill, a former industrialist before turning politician, said he's never found Canada's borders porous, as many critics say they are.

 "As a matter of fact, I hungered for quicker transactions between our countries."

 Both politicians promised to spend what it takes to make their shared border safe and improve the flow of goods and people, but put no pricetag on that.

 There is speculation the government will spend $500 million on a new infrastructure program for bridges, roads and technology that would clear up logjams at the border.

 "No amount of money has been settled yet, that will come out in the budget," said Martin. "But whatever it takes, we're prepared to invest it."

 O'Neill said the U.S. will also ante up what's needed.

 "We will put the resources that are required to achieve these objectives," he said.

 LINEUPS A PROBLEM

 Border lineups and red tape have long been a problem for Canadian manufacturers and exporters and Sept. 11 has only exacerbated the problem.

 Revenue Minister Martin Cauchon, who also met with Paul Martin and O'Neill, announced officials will set to work on a "concrete action plan" to ease commerce.

 "This is not something we should do in years or months, but in weeks," O'Neill said.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Canada is the US's biggest trading partner.

A fact that escapes many who don't live in border states.

Especially, it appears, Texans.

Delays at the border are detrimental to the economies of both countries.

Canada has been notoriously lax in screening fraudulent refugee claimants and in allowing rejected claimants to escape execution of deportation orders, but so has the US.

people who participated in the September 11 attack had been resicent in the US, were on US issued visas, travelled around the US in rented cars, took flying lessont in the US, rented time on airliner flight simulators without having any apparent connection with an airline (even as a job applicant), and routinely flew back and forth between the US and Germany, without ever touching Canadian soil. One of the most recent scams is for people resident in the US on student visas to "lose" their documents, show up at a US-Canada border crossing, and claim refugee status.

While the claim is wending its weary way through the appeals process (a process that may take years), the claimant is ostensibly living in Canada as a welfare recipient but actually living and studying in the US. His monthly welfare allowance is deposited directly to his Canadian bank account but drawn by him through a US ATM machine.

I wonder how many people who were born in Canada or the US are on both countries' books as refugees?

1 posted on 11/17/2001 2:23:42 AM PST by Clive
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To: Clive
We're not a sieve

There's just a lot of holes

2 posted on 11/17/2001 3:20:11 AM PST by RippleFire
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To: Clive
bump
3 posted on 11/17/2001 3:32:22 AM PST by beekeeper
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To: Clive
I cross the American border by car a couple of times every year.

I've never been stopped for a check crossing the U.S. border. When I was a kid with my folks, we were stopped once because we had some oranges.

Coming back to Canada, I've been checked plenty of times. That's why I always carry a passport, so I can get back into my own country. They usually stop you checking for goods, but I take my passport, just in case.

As far as I'm concerned, with Americans training Terrorist pilots, and allowing them to travel about within their own country, etc. We should probably be a little more stringent at our American crossings, but as long as they can recite the American National anthem, I'd let them in.

4 posted on 11/17/2001 4:50:39 AM PST by jerod
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To: jerod
Probably better to make them recite the pledge of allegiance.

OTOH, it's not perfect. The Catholic Youth Organization dances once (several decades ago) had the practice of making any new kid recite the Hail Mary before he was let in to the dance. A lot of protestant boys learned it in order to get in.

5 posted on 11/17/2001 5:35:11 AM PST by Clive
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To: Clive
"I've heard these things and ... what we resolved is we need to take these vague ideas and run them to the ground,"

Uh? Just put your head in the sand then? Canada is not liable, nor willing (leftist PC combat boots are a fashion there), nor capable of protecting us, and that's the main issue, period.

6 posted on 11/17/2001 5:40:21 AM PST by lavaroise
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To: Clive
The identical arguement is made daily about the border with Mexico - and neither is sufficient to justify the flow of drugs, illegals, and terrorists that they cover for.

Conversely, it is OUR responsibility to defend our borders - neither Canada nor Mexico are charged by their citizens or laws to protect a neighboring country. Treaties might promise mutual defense but when the attacker is a car load of un-profilible 'minorities' you can bet that PC and economics will win out over defense.

While I think it would be very eighborly of either Canada or Mexico to assist in this new type of defense, it is clear that neither wishes to yield the economic benefits of letting us go it alone -
So be it.

From today forward I will add the northern border to my short list of placed that need to be fortified. If some find it more difficult to get to walmart, and others have to pay a bit more for gas or cigarettes, if the occasional transient has to buy drugs, have liposuction, or have a baby on the 'wrong' side of a border, so be it.

7 posted on 11/17/2001 7:07:16 AM PST by norton
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To: Clive
YES YOU ARE.....

Now shut up and get me a Lablatt's before we decide to make you the 51st state.

8 posted on 11/17/2001 7:27:44 AM PST by Bulldog1967
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To: lavaroise
There are more Canadian border guards then there are Americans, and most arrests along the border are for people heading North.
9 posted on 11/17/2001 9:47:46 AM PST by Proud Canadian
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To: Clive
Well, so far only one of the 19 had a Canadian connection, 13 of the terrorist's had legal US visa's, and had been in the US for years.
10 posted on 11/17/2001 9:57:11 AM PST by Great Dane
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To: norton
You have to remember that entering the US, you are stopped .... or not, by US border guards.
11 posted on 11/17/2001 10:01:09 AM PST by Great Dane
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To: Proud Canadian
I was not targeting Canada, I was targeting the demagoguery and lies of O'Neil. I am sure O'Neil is refering to those numbers, but ultimately this is meaningless because the US has no control over those numbers. Canada has a leverage, and I do not mean that Canada would leverage against the US in the future, but I am more worried about what others would make Canada do later on. This actualy is probably is a side tracking from the problems with the Mexican border.

You and I have no control over the consequences of NAFTA and no one can be held liable for fiascos because of NAFTA. Every one has washed their hands off of this responsibility and this O'Neil believes that by making a scene about "sieve" is going to improve his argument. It ain't so, it is a vapor and spit argument.

In other words extortion of the people's safety rules.

The bottom line is more laws, less enforcement and work for the government.

12 posted on 11/17/2001 10:02:36 AM PST by lavaroise
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To: lavaroise
Funny you should mention the Mexican border, on "America's most wanted," they spoke of all the middle easterners paying big money to the smugglers, in one go, 80 of these unwanted people got in.
13 posted on 11/17/2001 7:46:08 PM PST by Great Dane
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To: Clive
One of the big problems with foreigners entering Canada is the spurious nature of their refugee claims. Many people, especially from the mid-east, are claiming refugee status becasue they are escaping persecution in their homeland. This includes facing the penalty of having their hand cut of for theft. Canada consideres that persecution but the refugee is really trying to evade prosecution.
14 posted on 11/19/2001 5:34:43 AM PST by doc30
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