I travel to the States on business frequently and the grilling you get nowadays is remarkable. The questions you get are all about your employment and why you are going to do work in the US. You are usually one wrong answer away from being refused entry.

“You are usually one wrong answer away from being refused entry.”

That’s pretty much always been true, although when the US economy is ticking along nicely, the border guards tend to skip the tough questions. I would like to believe that if a US citizen working for Chrysler was working in Canada on a NAFTA visa, he’d get more than grilled by our revenue-collecting border guards.

My dad worked in the US on a few visas, with us kids in tow. It was made VERY clear to us (by Dad) that we were GUESTS of the country and any major screwup could result in our visas cancelled and his job lost. Getting blase about your right to work in a foreign country is probably not the smartest thing to do, because you really ARE a guest and can be shown the door at any time.

The guy in question has had a crappy deal, I agree. However, the company he works(ed) for had their heads in the clouds - 12 years on a NAFTA visa? In that 12 years, they didn’t have him groom one (or more) people to follow in his footsteps? Have they not heard of the concept of succession planning?

I’m guessing some tough questions are being asked of the HR & risk management people…

There’s a lot of bikers in this area who have scratched New York State off the ride list over the last couple of years. It used to be a quick ride down the 416, cross the bridge, ride the Seaway Trail, take some pictures, stop for supper along the way, come home - now, because of the attitude at the border, it just ain’t worth it.

Who would have guessed that middle aged bikers from Ontario out for a Sunday ride represent the clear and present danger to American national security that we apparently do eh?

America can play the ‘oh poor us, everybody hates us so we must be ever vigilant about our safety and our economy‘ if they want, it’s entirely their decision - but, as they are so fond of saying, there are consequences to that. One of them is negative press (I doubt they care) , another is lost tourist revenue…. you’ll hear a lot of bikers now saying “screw ‘em, if they don’t want us, or our money, there’s lots of roads where the officials ain’t quite so paranoid”.

On a personal note, I’m planning a road trip on the bike down east this summer. I could knock hours the drive, and a lot of miles off the trip, by cutting through New York, Vermont, and Maine and crossing within 25 miles of where I’m gonna end up - but I’m going through Quebec anyway….. the probably hassle just ain’t worth the savings.

Some of the best wrecks in the St. Lawrence (the Keystorm, the America) are on the American side of the river. For as long as I’ve been diving, there’s been tacit agreement that American divers can dive the Canadian wrecks, and vice versa. The Keystorm is about ten minutes offshore from Mallorytown landing.

For the last few years, in order to dive the American wrecks, we’ve had to drive past Mallorytown to Rockport, cross the St. Lawrence, travel upriver to Hart Island, stand in a queue of pissed off, roasting, neoprene-clad divers for up to two hours, show a passport to a (usually) rude US customs attendant, then head downriver for an hour. A ten minute boat ride is now a four hour ordeal.

I’m sure the American public is relieved to hear that Al Qaeda will not be planting bombs on sunken ships.

I love the smell of neoprene in the morning.

It smells like…

Well, neoprene.