Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The Wall’s On The Wrong Border!

A Canadian man was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol after he tried to cross the Niagara River on a raft so that he could pay an American credit-card bill in person, thus saving himself an $85 fee:
Wayne Kingwell, 40, of Fort Erie, Ont., was pulled to safety by state police and firefighters Monday on the U.S. side of the river near Grand Island … he can't drive across the nearby Peace Bridge connecting Ontario and New York because of a past legal dispute with the Canadian government.

Kingwell was taken to a local hospital to be treated for hypothermia. Later, he was taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol and now faces a charge of illegally trying to enter the United States.

posted by Jennifer Abel at 4:45 PM

6 Comments:

Blogger harmoniousjosh said...

That, and I like Mexicans more than Canadians.

Is that wrong?

5:59 PM  
Blogger Anne O'Neimaus said...

<TongueInCheek>
This is a classic example of what open-border enthusiasts are always saying: closed borders will reduce revenues from foreign visitors.

This guy was trying to pay us money...so we arrested him. Way to encourage tourism and free trade, Mr. Bush!
</TongueInCheek>

1:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They took our...poutine?

- Josh

11:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Darn terrorists, trying to save money.

Who do they think they are???

Don't they know that our companies need every dollar they can scheme out of us financial resources?

1:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like he should be given a ride to the CC co so he can pay his money, by everybody dinner then be taken to the CA side of the bridge again, with his raft as well!

This is 180 degrees from what comes up from the south!

7:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the Canada/US border is nothing more than a stupid tax collection line. It is held in place by ancient policies which are perpetuated by government fat cats spewing endless propaganda and baseless paranoia.

Many years ago I got tired of those anal retentive gun-toting bordercrats telling me I couldn’t go across because of an old (non-violent) criminal conviction. There is no real reason why I can’t go across the border. They just want me to get this silly and expensive waiver because even though I have been pardoned in Canada, I was stopped at the border years ago when there was a record and this information is permanently lodged in the system on the U.S. side. The press releases from the U.S. government were highly misleading. Crossing the river was nothing. I wasn’t “rescued” at all. I came ashore in the wrong spot and much later due to the ice conditions. In contrast the trauma I went through at the hands of the U.S. authorities still haunts me to this day. I spent almost 3 weeks in a maximum security Federal Detention Facility at Batavia. They were nice enough to put me in a low-level wing…eventually, but the whole thing was a sham. Mexicans who arrived after me were on flights home at the taxpayers’ expense long before I was sent home… in a truck… just a few miles from my house. Prior to this I had been crossing by boat regularly for about 15 years with no problems. I went about my business and every few years visited my mother in California, stopped by in Florida to see my friends etc. …and then I went home. No working illegally, no smuggling, no drugs, no crime, no terrorism! …imagine that…duh…I am CANADIAN…crazy? …maybe…dangerous…no!

I believe the system is failing because we keep electing the wrong people and the wrong people keep lining up for the job of governing the rest of us so we are all screwed no matter what. What happened to common sense? I thought Bush made sense at first but he is just like the rest, lock em up, hang em high… only he wants to “fix” the whole world too…instead he has made more enemies. I am very concerned about what is going to happen to the world when all those Iraqi kids that lost parents, siblings, limbs, homes, camels in this latest war/police action…whatever. Most of them are going to grow up hating America, learn how to make road side bombs, hand held rockets and sign up for any wacky extreamist terrorist boot camp that will take them! All we are doing in Iraq is making a fresh batch of Bin Ladins…or worse! Ya ok take out Saddam…done…get out! Hey didn’t the CIA put him in power?….so why did we the people (volunteer armed forces) have to clean up their mess…again?

…and have you noticed lately…now that Bush is on his way out…that he really doesn’t give a shit…hmm

I think a 3-week stay at club Fed is not what the American people wanted for me. From the looks of things very little of what either government is doing is what the people want. But who is going to say anything?…who will do anything? …nope they will just build more jails…sound familiar?

I am not particularly bitter about being tossed in jail for wanting to go to the bank to pay my bill. I am more horrified that we live in a world so filled with manufactured fear. The government is in the business of making terrorism …on it’s own people! And anyway who do they think they are claiming they are blowing up a bunch of dirt farmers in the desert to root out terrorists? Bullshit! Yup, sure looks to me like the American people have been duped in to yet another war. I feel so sad for the 4000+ families of all the young men and women who have lost their lives to the war on…umm…oil…? …or is it the advance of Christian values or is it democracy, or umm…McDondalds? I think it is time for a war on Bullshit! The problem with being in an elected “leadership” position is that most people don’t know how to really “lead” Aggression has a nasty tendency to backfire…damn near always… most people who lead do so by being aggressive. Who pays the price, yup, those darn PEOPLE. For example, the war on drugs, now this is a real problem that is in our faces. It is stealing our sons and daughters right out from under our noses. This is where Bush and the like should be pumping money and talent but not only with aggression. The problem needs to be fought on the social front primarily. Clean up the social problems that cause people to turn to drugs in the first place. The answer is simple and cheaper than a Apache helicopters too,… EDUCATE our children! Just imagine if we spent as much money on education as we spend on aggression. Whoa, we would have the smartest kids in the friggin world! …who wouldn’t crash cars or use illicit drugs. Instead we are raising a bunch of stoned video game junkies that will turn into adults right about the same time as those Iraqi kids figure out how to make dirty bombs…hmm interesting…

For many years, as a youngster travelling in the U.S., I was always amused by the ingrained mistrust the older American people had for their government, especially in the South. Now I know there is a reason for it! I can’t help thinking…there must be a better way. Lately I am disappointed that the U.S. government totally underestimates just how inventive Americans (and Canadians) really are. Go ahead stop the flow of oil…we will find alternatives real quick!

I remember thinking while in a holding cell somewhere in Buffalo, these power-hungry border guards with their brand new concrete buildings (empty save for me) and shiny SUVs, Panasonic tough notes and guns galore, what a bunch of stuffed shirts. They couldn’t get enough of me. They must have been thinking, finally a chance to show we are here and doing our job…now all that money they gave us for “homeland security” is justified!!! They were almost frantic to find anything to inflate their importance as they rummaged through my belongings … why don’t they just send these stressed out doughnut gobbling wannabe soldiers to catch Bin Ladin? You can tell they are just itching to shoot someone they way they strut around like they foiled an invasion…by one Canadian…what were they afraid of?…maybe that I would bring some real coffee…or heaven forbid…real beer and pizza! …hey that sounds good..but damit why is Burger King so much better in the U.S. than here! …must be a conspiracy! ;-)

By the way I am a part-time inventor and a full-time innovator and I am doing my part to clean up the world by helping people to run their cars on WATER! Let’s stop burning fossil fuels! www.hhodreamfuel.com



Wayne Kingwell

The rafter

5:35 PM  

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