[BeaverFever]

$1:

Overzealous Big Brother stopping Canadians from entering U.S


By Michele Mandel, Toronto Sun

TORONTO - All of a sudden, Uncle Sam doesn’t want him anywhere near their country and their ridiculous lack of hospitality has cost him his career.

Is Terry Potvin a terrorist? A convicted killer, rapist, robber or drug dealer? Not at all. The 48-year-old Wasaga Beach auto parts executive and father of two is so squeaky clean that he had no idea why he was pulled over for secondary screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

All he knew was that being grilled for six hours about his past was going to make him late for his business trip to Nashville as part of the new job he’d started just two weeks before as lead quality engineer.

But after being photographed and fingerprinted, he was told he wasn’t going anywhere but home. Not only has Potvin been barred entry to the U.S., but that decision has cost him his job and livelihood.

And his “crime?”

According to Canada, he never committed one. When he was 19 — a whopping 29 years ago — he was arrested with a small amount of “crappy hash oil” while he and his pals were searched outside a pool hall. For what he acknowledges was “being young and dumb,” he got a conditional discharge, two years probation — but no criminal record.

He forgot all about it. He married, had a family, has been a hard-working, contributing member of society. His career has required him to travel to the U.S. — which he has done without incident more than 50 times, until that day in May.

“I was absolutely in shock,” Potvin recalls. “I’m a grown man but this brought me almost to tears.”

He had to call his new boss and tell him that he wasn’t being allowed into the U.S. because of a three-decade old pot charge. Potvin understood when his employer had to let him go because of his travel problems. Another position with an auto parts company also fell through when he told them he couldn’t go into the States.

“The Canadian and United States governments have ruined my life,” he says.

Potvin’s story is one that immigration lawyer Guidy Mamann hears increasingly from clients who, until recently, never had problems entering the U.S. He blames Canada’s increasingly generous “information dump” about its citizens that it sends to its American counterparts. Even Canadian police incident reports — any interaction you may have with law enforcement whether it results in a charge of not — are now being handed over freely to the Americans, he says, all in the name of homeland security.

“This is very sinister,” Mamann says.

Big Brother, it seems, knows everything. The lawyer had an anorexic client barred from returning to her U.S. treatment program after they accessed her medical records and found that she’d used recreational drugs. Another woman was stopped at the border because police were once called to her home when she attempted suicide many years before.

“I don’t think we should be giving up that kind of information,” argues Mamann. “We didn’t agree to sacrifice our privacy. We agreed to share information that would enhance security and these are not cases that pose security risks.

“It’s time we rethought this. It’s been 13 years since 9/11.”

After all Potvin’s years of American travel, even post 9/11, why has this become a problem now? Mamann believes U.S. customs’ increasing access to our databases probably turned up the conditional discharge — and while our justice system treated the possession charge as a misdemeanour not even worthy of a criminal record, the Americans view it as a drug crime.

Ironically, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they couldn’t comment on the case because of privacy issues.

Now Potvin has a U.S. document that says he’s been denied entry into the U.S because he has a criminal record and a Canadian document telling him he doesn’t need a pardon because he has no criminal record.

He must wait up to a year and spend about $1500 to get a U.S. waiver that will hopefully let him back into their country and allow him to reapply for positions in his industry that require American travel.

It all seems ridiculous.

“The information we’re releasing to the U.S. should be about truly bad people — drug dealers, sex offenders, murderers. Don’t throw Terry Potvin in there,” he says. “That’s insane.”

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/09/12/ov ... ntering-us

[andyt]

Way to keep up the drug war and keep these dangerous people out of the US. If we weren't so soft in Canada, these people would have spent time in jail and have the criminal record they deserve, so wouldn't have good jobs in the first place, but have to make do with welfare and crime to support themselves. We'd all be much better off that way, keeping these dangerous criminals on the fringes of our society. If we would just hand long sentences to drug users and execute drug dealers it would eliminate the scourge of drug use once and for all. I think we can all drink to that.

Hey, this sarcasm is fun.

[saturn_656]

Keep in mind that unless you are an American citizen, you have no right to enter their country. They can keep us out for whatever BS reason they cook up and we can do same.

[123zxc]

Weird things happen on both sides of the border. I was leaving Montreal and had bought a baseball bat for my young son with the thought of doing some father/son activities on the weekend.

This was day that there was that huge bombing of the building in the Oklahoma.

In the line where they scan your luggage the guy in front of me had a golf club... and with no hesitation they let him take it on the plane.

There was no way the would let me take the baseball bat on the plane, wouldn't let me throw it away, give it away. I had to run downstairs and check it in my luggage. Nearly missed the flight.

Must be a class thing ...good thing I wasn't wearing a Maple Leafs jersey I may have been shot

[PublicAnimalNo9]

saturn_656 saturn_656:

Keep in mind that unless you are an American citizen, you have no right to enter their country. They can keep us out for whatever BS reason they cook up and we can do same.

I agree. But when personal information of a medical nature shows up in their hands, or 29 yr old arrests where the charges were dropped suddenly show up in the American system, I have a real problem with that.

It's gotten to the point where if you hop on an international Air Canada flight that takes it over US airspace but doesn't land anywhere in the US, the US will still have a list of the names of everyone on that flight.

[martin14]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

“The Canadian and United States governments have ruined my life,” he says.

No shithead, you did.

You were just too stupid to realize it at the time.


What Saturn said. It's their country. Don't like it ? Don't go.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

martin14 martin14:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

“The Canadian and United States governments have ruined my life,” he says.

No shithead, you did.

You were just too stupid to realize it at the time.


What Saturn said. It's their country. Don't like it ? Don't go.

It was a job transfer. The guy had previously crossed numerous times as a result OF his job. But suddenly this 29 year old arrest charge where the charges were dropped shows up in their system? That's a big ol' WTF??

[DrCaleb]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

martin14 martin14:

No shithead, you did.

You were just too stupid to realize it at the time.

What Saturn said. It's their country. Don't like it ? Don't go.

It was a job transfer. The guy had previously crossed numerous times as a result OF his job. But suddenly this 29 year old arrest charge where the charges were dropped shows up in their system? That's a big ol' WTF??

I'm glad Harper is getting tougher on crime and making us all safer.

And yes, it was Harper who let all our private records, including this guys conditional discharge, get transferred to US authorities where even if this guy could get a criminal pardon (Harper eliminated this) the US would never comply with a Canadian Judge's decision and delete the record.

[Unsound]

martin14 martin14:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

“The Canadian and United States governments have ruined my life,” he says.

No shithead, you did.

You were just too stupid to realize it at the time.


What Saturn said. It's their country. Don't like it ? Don't go.

Besides the obvious issues of sovereignty and privacy that you seem to be missing, I'm sure glad to learn that you never made any mistakes when you were young... or at least were lucky enough not to get caught.

[wildrosegirl]

saturn_656 saturn_656:

Keep in mind that unless you are an American citizen, you have no right to enter their country. They can keep us out for whatever BS reason they cook up and we can do same.

As long as they say so.

[wildrosegirl]

Unsound Unsound:

Besides the obvious issues of sovereignty and privacy that you seem to be missing, I'm sure glad to learn that you never made any mistakes when you were young... or at least were lucky enough not to get caught.

If he'd quit whining long enough to stop and think, he could very easily get a pardon issued and be free to go again. But no - let's throw a pity party, Facebook/Twitter it to death, maybe fire up a lawsuit.... That does the ego much better.

[martin14]

Unsound Unsound:

I'm sure glad to learn that you never made any mistakes when you were young... or at least were lucky enough not to get caught.

So, pick one.


Pardons exist, buddy should look into that.

[BeaverFever]

For Martin and Wildrose:

If you read the article, you would notice this line:

$1:

Now Potvin has a U.S. document that says he’s been denied entry into the U.S because he has a criminal record and a Canadian document telling him he doesn’t need a pardon because he has no criminal record

[jj2424]

Obama's protectionist BS. You can bet the border guards made his life miserable because he was "stealing our jerbs"

As usual the CKA left wing nut bags of nuts like Dr C and BF blame Harper.

[DrCaleb]

wildrosegirl wildrosegirl:

Unsound Unsound:

Besides the obvious issues of sovereignty and privacy that you seem to be missing, I'm sure glad to learn that you never made any mistakes when you were young... or at least were lucky enough not to get caught.

If he'd quit whining long enough to stop and think, he could very easily get a pardon issued and be free to go again. But no - let's throw a pity party, Facebook/Twitter it to death, maybe fire up a lawsuit.... That does the ego much better.

martin14 martin14:

Pardons exist, buddy should look into that.

No, there is no such thing as a pardon any more. Thank you Graham James!

And besides, as Beaver points out, he had no criminal record.