The unwelcomed

As this post is being written (Tuesday morning) the wait time to cross from Canada to the US on the Peace Bridge at Buffalo/Niagara Falls is… 0 minutes. As in, ‘zero’, according to the US Customs and Border Protection Agency.

Car traffic between Windsor and Detroit has fallen by 83,000, compared to last year. Stats Can says the number of Canadians crossing back home in March fell 32%.

A TikTok vid being viewed widely features a 20-something Canadian woman who says US Customs held her at the airport for five hours, searched her luggage, interrogated and fingerprinted her and then denied her entry to the States where she would be on a one-hour layover for a flight from Toronto to Brazil. Reasons unknown. Maybe her Arab name. Maybe because, though a citizen, she was born elsewhere. Maybe because she looks kinda brown. Get a visa, she was told, although Canadians do not need them.

Now university teachers are being warned about the border. “Given the rapidly evolving political landscape in the United States and reports of individuals encountering difficulties crossing the border, CAUT strongly recommends that academic staff travel to the U.S. only if essential and necessary. Academics should carefully consider what information they have, or need to have, on their electronic devices when crossing borders and take actions to protect sensitive information where necessary.”

Especially at risk, the profs are being told, is anyone who has ever dissed America on social media (who hasn’t?) or identifies as transgender. Meanwhile border guards have the absolute right to seize and search any laptop or phone, to detain people without charge, deny entry or assign a Canadian to detention without legal representation.

The American authorities, who routinely collect biometric data on visitors coming to 57 US airports, now plan on photographing occupants of all vehicles leaving the country to ensure travel documents are in compliance. In addition, roadblocks are suddenly common between US and Canadian border points. Says American customs: “As part of its national security mission U.S. Customs and Border Protection routinely conducts inspections on outbound traffic. These inspections are a vital tool in apprehending wanted individuals as well as in seizing a variety of contraband.”

Canadians made 670,000 fewer trips to the States last month. No bloody wonder. Air travel to the US from here has fallen 20%. Westjet just nixed a bunch of flights south because people do not want to venture into America. The Florida real estate market is a disaster with an historic number of listings (and crashing sales) as thousands and thousands of Canadians scramble to exit.

Says a tourism industry report on the economic crunch now hitting border communities: “Official data reveals that US travel service exports — covering international spending on hotels, restaurants, and entertainment — dropped by over seven percent in March. Excluding the pandemic period, this represents one of the most significant contractions in nearly twenty-five years. The tourism decline is hitting hospitality, retail, and service industries particularly hard, raising concerns over slowing growth and the possibility of job reductions in tourism-reliant regions.”

It’s estimated US small businesses dependant on Canadian cash have shed 14,000 employees to date.

This month American officials started comprehensive searches of all vehicles exiting the US for Canada at the Peach Arch bridge (Blaine Washington and Surrey BC) causing a massive traffic jam on the south side and a 3.5 hour wait to cross over into the from the republic of tyranny and suspicion.

Source: Nolan Baker, The Northern Light (Blaine)

No wonder border crossings from BC into the States dropped by 51% last month. Nobody wants to be thrust into a confrontational, unfriendly and potentially dangerous situation that could result in unreasonable delay and even detention.

The economic consequences of this MAGA excess and American border paranoia will be far-reaching. Canadians spend billions a year travelling through the US. We own tens of billions in US real estate. Border communities all along the 8,891 km-long stretch between our two nations will feel the pain. It’s already whacking Port Huron and Niagara Falls and attracting international attention. Before the orange guy arrived, our peaceful and friendly common border was a global envy. Now it feels like a trip to East Germany.

Give thanks you live on the free side.

About the picture: “Ruby is a dual doggie citizen Canada/Mexico,” writes Simon. “She lives in  Vancouver for 6 months and Baja the other 6. She doesn’t like the icy salty sidewalks and likes hiking in the Arroyo and chasing bugs.”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garth@garth.ca’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2025/05/13/the-unwelcomed/