I entered Canada from the U.S. via a major Border Station, unmanned, unchallenged.

I crossed from the U.S. at Calais Me, over the NEW relocated border station into Canada, and there was no customs official at the gate.

This was on a Friday morning, about 2:30am. Before entering the border crossing, i went in to the Duty Free store outside the facility and bought a carton of smokes and a bottle of Liquor. The guy in the Duty Free store told me to beware of the sign that either the U.S. or Canadian government had put up outside the store, which said " To Canada", with an arrow pointing to the right. He warned me that the sign was placed too close to the "private" road that, if you went down it, you may fall off an embankment, which is at the end of the dirt road. He said to keep going about 100 meters and I would be on the pavement, which was the correct turn to take that would bring me to the "NEW" border crossing, recently constructed , that is the new Calais, ME. crossing into Canada.

This new border crossing cuts off the central parts of the border towns, Calais, ME and St. Stephen NB which are connected by a bridge. and instead, connects travelers directly to route 1A in New Brunswick, so that they do not have to travel through these fantastically rural and friendly towns. ( as a side-note, can you imagine the US and Canada doing this to those little towns who's main existence thrives on the through-traffic flowing between them to survive? They have been here for a few hundred years.)

To Continue:

So, heeding the duty store clerk's warning, I did just that. He was certainly correct, because, If he had not told me, (being totally dark, 2:30 AM), I would have taken that dirt road that the sign was pointing to after leaveing the duty free store, and probably would have wound up as a wreck at the bottom of a ravine.

Anyway, I got on to the marked paved road, and proceeded in to the border crossing complex. It is real modern, huge buildings, lots of offices and warehouse type buildings. I past the U.S. entry position , which was on the left, and followed the directions in to the Canadian border entry. There was a sign that directed trucks to one side, and cars to the other. I entered the "cars" section, and after traveling down the road I saw the border stations, 4 across. The one with the Green signal light, was on the left, and the others had red signals, which mean that they were closed. I entered the Green station and pulled up to the Customs Kiosk.

No person was at the window.

I waited about 5 minutes, thinking that the customs officer was probably in the bathroom or something. There was no orange cone in the road, which I was told would be required , if the customs official was going to be away from the post , and that would signal me to wait there.

Finally, I backed up about 200 ft, just to make sure I had read all of the signs completely, and there were no warnings, information or anything at all, just that Green signal over the leftmost row, that I was in. I beeped my horn a few times and then went into the stall again. I waited another 5 minutes, beeping, but no one showed up.

Finally, figuring if I tried to continue forward, some alarms would go off, or someone would come out, I crept forward, but nothing. So, I just continued down the exit road, left the facility and was on my way to my destination in Canada.

For the first half hour of driving, I was really nervous. I figured some flashing lights would come after me, but there was nothing. Then I started to become angry, because, suppose I was carrying some really bad things, like a nuclear bomb, or a load of guns, or whatever... I had a free pass into this country, where no one had checked my passport, or my vehicle.

When I got to my destination, I told my son-in-law, who was already at our vacation site, about the incident. He is a Massachusetts State Trooper, and told me that he had never heard about anything like this, and that I was lucky that I did not get stopped, and could have even get shot at by going through a border crossing without being interrogated. He said that if this had happened coming in to the U.S., there would have been a $50k fine, and up to 5 years in prison for going through a border crossing without permission.

I even tried contacting the Canadian Customs, but the person at the other end said that I would have to contact a web site, which comes up 404 (unknown)

www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca...

So, if this is the kind of security that is being offered into Canada, I want to put you on alert to this incident. I am just a simple U.S. person, going on vacation, but I also could have been a terrorist, smuggling bombs, ammunition,and whatever or a drug runner with a heavy load.

WTF Canada....

I will not give the date, time or any other info, but it was VERY recent.

Also, coming back in to the U.S., there was no alert that would have given them cause to question me, I just got handed my passport back, and the U.S. agent said, "I hope you enjoyed your stay". I was somehow under the impression that border officials kept track of who came in, and then would corrolate that with who came out.

Wow. This invokes alot of other discussion I am sure, about how strict our border crossings really are.

This situation invokes past cases of mystery about who, when and what transpired at a border crossing especially in this day and age..... I would certainly not want someone to get in trouble over this, but that does not really matter in the big picture. We all trust that our borders are secure, and this does not meet that profile.

..... it bothers me alot.

(Another side note: As far as I have been able to research, a situation like this had NEVER happened at the original border crossing, at the bridge between Calais and St. Stephen. So much for "progress". )

I would welcome what the rest of ATS would like to comment on this. Thanks.

Are you a white guy?

Or a brown guy?

That's ok,

We Canadians aren't that uptight about people coming here illegally.

Wait...Are you Mexican?

Kidding of course.

I did the same coming from the Yukon into Alaska years ago. Went through the border crossing after 9pm. There was actually a sign in sheet on the American side. "Please sign your name and record your license plate"...I didn't.

Peace

Well I don't think its typical. I keep reading people talking about how hard it is to return from their trip in the US to Canadian side border patrol and the trouble they've put through for no reason. So this was most odd.

reply to post by charlyv


Hmmm what would life be like if we could always travel so easily...

You make a solid point though. Sorry about the stress and paranoia you got afterwards...they owe you an apology for not posting the explaination on the kiosk window...

reply to post by charlyv


Gosh, will you shut up about that please?

Everyone who lives in the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes Region knows that's our secret spot for when the SHTF we all meet up there and flee to Canada. Why do you have to go advertising ?

Gosh.

reply to post by jude11

There was actually a sign in sheet on the American side. "Please sign your name and record your license plate"...I didn't.

I'm telling.

reply to post by charlyv


Pretty scary indeed. I bet you would never ever ever find an unmanned border crossing on the U.S. / Mexico border!

Can you imagine?!?

reply to post by charlyv


Oh wait. This was Maine ?

WHEW !

I thought he was talking about that special spot in the woods that takes you right into Canada from the Great Lakes area. Okay. I feel so much better now.

Well that just warms my heart knowing the borders are secure.

Originally posted by cavalryscout
reply to post by charlyv

 

Pretty scary indeed. I bet you would never ever ever find an unmanned border crossing on the U.S. / Mexico border!

Can you imagine?!?

Walked in the US from Mexico waving my passport above my head, not a soul there. Might have been nice to get a stamp on the passport to save future questions. Managed to escape again though so no worries

If you know where to go, you can cross between canada and the us with no problem whatsoever. There are trails way in the woods where we do it all the time on snowmobiles and quads, or even offroading in jeeps.

reply to post by jude11

Sometimes the border at Canada can be strange for sure..

I went accross once with half a case of spilled 7.62 ammo in the back seet of my car and they looked in and saw all the bullets, but didn't even comment on it.. This was 1993..

They hassled me at the Canadian customs once and I got tired of their sass and said good bye and that I have decided not to visit their country afterall.. and drove away then turned into the return to USA lane to the sound of their sirens, to which I then slammed on my brakes and yelled some f words at them, then continued back to the USA crossing.. (I was young then)..

This was before they were allowed to carry firearms.. Don't try this now...
The USA and Canada border crossings have adopted the North Korean version of border enforcement now for random harrassment and death.. They even try to provoke people into physical violence nowadays.. (US and Canada stations)

Things that are harder than sneaking into Canada

1. Opening a jar of pickles
2. Walking and chewing gum
3. Long division

reply to post by alienreality


Don't know man. I have brought arsenals across the border, both ways. When I moved here to canada, I literally had a suburban full of guns, swords and knives. Sure the paperwork was a bitch, but I had no problem getting over. And I am on the "nofly" list. We got to the border at around midnight, and didn't leave until around 7AM, fun times. I helped an uncle move to maine, and we had so many guns as well. Brought around 100,000 rounds when I moved here, but we didn't claim it. The boarder patrol earned their money that night. Somewhere around 60 guns, 5 cars, 12 motorcycles, and two tractor trailor uhauls. We burried the ammo, and lots of lumber in the uhauls. Took us 4 days to pack then, and they were packed to the ceiling we didn't waste no space, that was 8 men packin them all day.

I remember when I entered/exited Canada to/from Alaska....on my way in...no passports were needed (just military orders)....on my way out, it was about 6months or so before passports needed, but still had to show military orders. Had to do this twice leaving Alaska via Yukon into Haines to leave on the Ferry.

Anyways, going thru the stations, I remember how desolate some of the borders were and thought, the only purpose the stations served was monitoring vehicles (and the passengers in and out. It just boggled my mind and bothers me how unprotected the US's northern border is. The crossing from Alaska into Yukon is so flippn remote....I wonder if they have mounties/border patrol on horseback making sure people on foot are not crossing illegally....im sure they dont....but but but......dang...

About 5 years we were crossing back into Canada from Buffalo at Niagara Falls, and we pulled into the Customs station and the guy just told us to go on, we were stopped for less than 10 seconds. This was the middle of the day.
We did have passports in hand, and driving a car with Ontario plates on it. But he never actually checked any of our documents. It was the middle of the day and very busy.

reply to post by skepticconwatcher


Canada is the second biggest country in the world with only 30 millions people
with the biggest fresh water reserve in the world
we have plenty of place with trees everywhere
you have enought of the heat ?
then go 1000 miles north of Montreal where its cooler
you could still go another thousand mile in the north and still be in Canada
but it will look like Alaska
Im sure Russia is pissed to have sold Alaska for just 8 millions dollars to the US in 1867
it would have been the perfect proxy base near the US
in case the WH one day would try to conquer the world and isolate russia

The concern here is what exactly. That Canada is going to be invaded by the US?
Or that agents of some other country that meant us harm would go backwards thru the gate?

I think that if somebody was running anything illegal nowadays they wouldn't drive up to the crossing on a road. They would attempt to cross the border off the beaten track. Where there are no gates or guards. Theres thousands of miles of that.