Think about the cost. News reports are saying that 20,000 Canadians per day are now lining up to get passports because of the US clampdown. That means something like 5 million passports issued per year at a cost of $60 each, that is a half a billion dollar "tax" on visitors from Canada to cross the border. Add to that the fact that Americans now have to get a passport to leave their own country to go into Canada, and you are talking about an annual $1 billion cost for "security".
Let's see, it has been over 8 years since 9/11 and there have been no threats from Canada. But the US for "security" reasons will now close its border unless you pay for a passport. In the midst of a recession with people already strapped for money, the idiotic US has just imposed a big tax on people being tourists. What next? Tax people every time they walk out their front door? That has to be a security threat. By my calculation one in every trillion times somebody in the US has gone out a door a terrorist act has occurred. I say demand a "homeowner's ID" with a fee of $50 each. That could hit the US with an additional $15 billion "security" tax.
With that ID US authorities could have stopped all those Al Qaeda terrorist who were renting apartments and homes prior to 9/11 because the local cops would have know exactly who they were. OK, so the CIA already knew exactly who they were, but why would you expect the CIA to tell the FBI? Especially when the CIA had issued in the summer of 2001 a Presidential Dailyl Briefing entitle "Bin Laden Determined to Attack the US!" So maybe something more than an ID is needed. Maybe another bureaucracy to check on the checkers to make sure they are checking IDs. Yes that's it!!!
I can think of lots more of these "security programs" that the US should implement to really, really ensure "security". We can layer multi-billion dollar "security" on top of multi-billion dollar "security". Won't everybody feel safer with that?
Anyway... here's the Star article:
U.S. security czar softens stand on border
Laws same, enforcement techniques will be different at Canadian, Mexican borders, U.S. official says
Adelle Loiselle, THE CANADIAN PRESS
A senior U.S. official who earlier stoked concerns that Canada's border would be treated no different than Mexico's now says that while the law governing the crossings is the same, the techniques used to implement it will be different.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's words — made in Detroit late yesterday — come less than a week before new rules kick in that require a passport or other secure document to enter the U.S.
"We're going to be using a different mix of manpower and technology between the ports of entry, for example, than we would at the southern border," Napolitano said at a joint news conference with Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.
"So, the law is the same but the techniques we use to implement that law will be differentiated because of the differences between Canada and Mexico."
In March, Napolitano told a Canada-U.S. border conference that the U.S. "shouldn't go light on one and heavy on the other," in reference to the Canadian and Mexican borders.
Those comments came after she testified at U.S. Senate hearings into growing drug violence at the U.S.-Mexican border that prompted President Barack Obama to deploy hundreds of federal agents to border posts.
Van Loan insisted at the time he was unconcerned about a thickening of the U.S. border based on those comments – which he said had been exaggerated by the media.
Yesterday, the two announced a pact, known as the Shiprider program, to allow officers from the RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard to ride each other's vessels for joint patrols and specific enforcement operations.
The agreement would allow the countries to help enforce each other's laws.
With the new passport requirements coming into effect June 1 (next Monday) under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Napolitano held up the Shiprider program as an example of the special relationship Washington shares with Canada.
"I'd like to emphasize that security for the United States does not mean closing ourselves off from other countries," she said.
"It means working together as neighbours and allies, and it is because of our close and unique relationship with Canada that such closely co-ordinated programs like Shiprider can exist."
Napolitano and Van Loan have agreed to twice-yearly, high-level meetings between U.S. and Canadian officials to discuss northern border issues.
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