Comments on: Only Terrorists Go to Canada

By: yami

yami — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 13:34:00 +0000

Presumably if your passport is lost or stolen, you either sleep on the floor of the nearest U.S. Consulate for a few nights, or meet up with a con man named Jimmy…

By: Rana

Rana — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 13:13:00 +0000

Hee.
I’ve been thinking about this some more, and I guess what bugs me in particular about this is that I still carry around the notion that passports are for visiting _foreign_ countries, for identifying oneself as an American citizen when abroad. The idea that one has to show a passport to return to one’s _own_ country really bugs me.
I mean, what happens if it gets lost or stolen? Are you never allowed to go home? What good is citizenship if it depends solely on the possession of a single, somewhat expensive document? I grasp the “practical” aspects of making everyone show some sort of ID at a border crossing, but I really hate the more philosophical implications.

By: yami

yami — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 22:41:00 +0000

You mean they’re remaking Born in East L.A. as a reality show? Maybe they could combine it with the Amazing Race…

By: Harrison

Harrison — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:53:00 +0000

You realize that this is all *actually* the fault of the liberal Hollywood cabal. They just want this to happen for all of the stupid movie plot possibilities it will create. It’s the era of reality TV, and we are suffering from extreme narrative exhaustion.

By: wolfangel

wolfangel — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 23:11:00 +0000

My only objection to passports is the cost given how short their use life is. I do not want a wallet-size passport: that would be a recipe for loss.
We never used to get asked for ID, we just said we were Canadian and we drove a car with a Canadian license plate and, you know, two white adults with their two young blonde daughters? Not a recipe for danger. (Yeah, I harp on the colour issue, but it’s because I am absolutely convinced it’s true. That and the fake plastic flowers I have on my dash.)

By: yami

yami — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 21:58:00 +0000

Oh phew.
I’d personally like the NAFTA countries to eventually adopt a sort of Schengen protocol. That, and passports are not wallet-sized, so I hate them.
I went to Canada when I was like 9, so didn’t have proper ID, and my parents had forgotten to bring along my birth certificate. We were let in because we all had matching library cards. Ah, the good ol’ days…

By: wolfangel

wolfangel — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 21:28:00 +0000

No, I knew you were being snarky, I’m just saying that I think there’s a distinction to be made for when it’s appropriate to show identification and when it’s not, and I think that crossing a border is a reasonable time to show ID. (Of course, we already do, just not necessarily passports.)
I was in fact asked all those questions. Do most people know how their parents know every single one of their friends?

By: yami

yami — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 20:39:00 +0000

Wolfangel: I agree, it’s absurd. The customs agents must’ve taken out all the snark when my last comment crossed the border, I hope this one gets past the emoticon-sniffing dogs…

By: wolfangel

wolfangel — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 20:31:00 +0000

In May 2002 I went to Maine with friends in my father’s car. It wasn’t a terribly expensive car, but it was more than a bunch of 20ish year olds could afford, certainly. The border crossing went like this:
Whose car is this? My father’s.
How do you know each other? Friends from school.
Where did you meet? School.
What are your occupations? Students.
What do you study? Linguistics.
Where are you going? Maine.
Why? Vacation.
Where are you staying? At a friend of the family’s house.
How do you know them? My parents are friends with them.
How long have they been friends? About 20 years.
Where did they meet? In Maine.
What’s their last name? Hussein-Bin Laden; it’s a hyphenated name.
After I answered all those questions, I went out to the trunk so they could rummage through our luggage (Why do you have this much? I overpack. What’s in this bottle? Tylenol.) and ask me all the same questions ALL OVER AGAIN.
The thing is, Yami, I don’t object to the idea that to do certain things, you might need to show identification. An RFID-enabled passport is a little beyond the pale, though.

By: Moebius Stripper

Moebius Stripper — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 20:14:00 +0000

Yeah, I get crap at borders too, and agents always insist on seeing my passport, but I figured that that was largely because I am visibly part Middle Eastern. (I do not get nearly as much crap as my visibly completely Middle Eastern friends, though.) Hmm. One time they asked where I was from (”Ottawa”), no, they mean ethnically, where were my parents from (”Montreal”), no, they mean where were they born (”Montreal”) - at this I was reminded that it was a federal offence to lie to a customs agent. Lately I have taken to wearing my hair in a ponytail and wearing vanilla non-ethnic looking clothes. Border crossings are a lot smoother now.