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Harsh customs

A Canadian border town has become the latest victim of America's 'war on terror', writes Anne McIlroy

Anne McIlroy in Ottawa
Monday November 18, 2002

In the tiny border town of Pohenegamook, the entrance to the gas station is on Canadian soil, but the pumps are in the US.
Five weeks ago, Michel Jalbert, a resident of the Quebec side of Pohenegamook, decided to pull in, as he has done hundreds of times before, and fill up his vehicle with petrol. The residents of Pohenegamook have been buying gas this way for years, and have a letter from the US government authorising the practice.

This time, though, as part of a US border crackdown, he was arrested and put in jail for 35 days.

Mr Jalbert was charged with immigration and weapons offences, for failing to report into the US customs office a kilometre down the road and for keeping a hunting rifle in his truck. He was dressed for a hunting trip.

His harsh treatment angered many people in Canada, where a growing number of citizens believe the US border is a perilous place.

Mr Jalbert is a francophone, speaks no English, and became depressed in jail, where he could not understand anyone. He has a young daughter and his wife is pregnant, but US prosecutors served notice they would challenge his bail application, which meant he probably wouldn't make it home for Christmas.

He would still be in jail if the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, had not intervened during a visit to Ottawa late last week.

"Don't go to the United States any more," he told his friends upon his tearful return to Canada.

What makes Mr. Jalbert's case so unusual is that he has white skin. Most of the dozens who have reported trouble are non-white immigrants, especially those who of Arabic appearance.

Rohinton Mistry, one of Canada's most celebrated authors, recently cancelled his US book tour. He said he couldn't face the "unbearable" humiliation of racial profiling in American airports.

Mistry, who was born in India and was nominated for this year's Man Booker prize for his novel Family Matters, is not alone in his displeasure with US border officials. Canadians born in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan - five countries targeted by the US in its fight against terrorism - have faced long delays and interrogations at the border. Earlier this year, the US began to automatically fingerprint, photograph, and register Canadian citizens born in these predominately Muslim countries.

Their treatment led to an official protest by the Canadian government that caused the US to modify its approach, saying it would not as a matter of policy stop all Canadians from the five countries. But many people continue to report problems at the border.

Nobody has encountered more trouble than Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian. In October, this respected engineer was on his way home to Canada when his plane stopped in New York. He was detained, interrogated and deported to Syria on the suspicion of having terrorist ties. He faced a prison term in Syria because he avoided military service as a young man. He is still being held prisoner by Syrian authorities.

Most Canadians acknowledge that the US needed to improve its border security in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. But they are uneasy about the current state of affairs.

Americans, it seems, are uneasy as well. Residents of Maine, the state that borders on Pohenegamook, were angered at the treatment of Mr Jalbert and were planning to raise money to pay for his defence. He is to appear in court in January.