The library that I mentioned in the OP is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. It straddles the Canada / US border. A black line inside the building indicates the border.
The towns are Derby Line Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec.
The group W bench is from Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.” You can Google the lyrics.
It’s where they have you sit with all the mother stabbers and father rapers.
From what I know about thru-hiking the PCT (West coast US trail from Mexico to Canada borders), You can enter Canada w/o a passport or enhanced DL - and this crossing is unmanned, but you can not reenter the US without it.
This produces a ‘one way gate’ on the PCT. Most hikers travel from Mexico to Canada, after completion they hike the short distance to a Canadian town, instead of the nearest US town which is days away. But if you wish to start at the CA boarder and hike it south you have a logistical nightmare, you either have to start at the nearest US trailhead and hike days north to get to the point where you start heading south, or start in CA, hike the short distance to the start of the trail, illegally cross to start your hike - and this latter method makes it very hard to get permits that are needed as the PCT permit for the entire trail will not be issues to these hikers.
Nope, lining up again will only make matters worse. These days they keep track of how often you cross the border and if there have been any problems.
Group W bench: http://youtu.be/b0a6iWHSWbA
Yes, of course, but that wouldn’t stop people from complaining about how easy it is to cross at checkpoints.
Also, “easy” is kind of relative. There’s a lot of wilderness out there.
It would be impossible to cross “in the wilderness” between Winnipeg and Montreal, without a pretty good boat. A few places, from the east end of Michigan’s UP, where it can be done in winter on a snowmobile. But it would be easy from Vermont or a few places in eastern Maine, even in a car, which I have done…
One item I read said the DUI entry denial was retaliation for a US policy that seemed to basically find any excuse possible to deny entry to Canadians.
One fellow I knew was a middle manager going down to a business conference in Washington, in his mid-50’s. He was somewhat inebriated, and the customs agent in Toronto denied him entry to the USA based on a juvenile conviction when he was 17. Another guy, his mother called the police on him when he was 15 to “teach him a a lesson” over some pot she found in his room. He was 35, heading to the USA with his family to visit Disneyland, and denied entry due to a drug charge.
Apparently any drug conviction can get you denied entry. I recall one discussion where someone mentioned going to Burning Man; the US border agent asked if he had ever smoked dope, and when he said “yes”, that was reason to deny him entry. Never admit to have committed a violation, even outside the country, even if not charged or convicted.
The customs agent can deny entry for almost any reason; once denied entry, trying to get in without going through the proper paperwork will guarantee no entry for 10 years or some such penalty. Since everything is computerized, don’t expect a different lane or different crossing will work. As for that DUI, Canada and the USA share their police databases to some extent. Not sure if an Australian or French conviction will be seen, but almost everything in North America does.
Another case in the news, a woman who had attempted suicide while depressed was denied entry to the USA a year later as mentally unstable and a risk. The customs knew about the incident because they had access to her name and the 911 ambulance call details from the police database, even though there were no charges.
A customs agent was charged with a road rage assault on a Canadian tourist in Washington State. When he was appealing to not be fired, his proof how good an agent he was - he had denied the most number of Canadian entry to the USA in the Washington border crossing where he worked.
But to get back to the OP - this passport requirement is a result of the discovery(?) after 9/11 of just how flimsy the USA (and Canada) identification system was. Until then, it was very easy to get false identity drivers licenses, birth certificates, and many other documents. The passport was a document that ensured a certain level of due diligence had been applied in verifying identity and was the standard for other international travel anyway. As mentioned, there are now “enhanced drivers licenses” and similar documents where (a) a certain amount of identity verification had happened and (b) the document was hi-tech and tamper-proof to prevent alterations.
Thank you…it has been about 27 years straight that this is my Thanksgiving movie and ode…
Another thing that’s led to tighter controls on the border (in addition to 9/11 and all that) is that there were some gun control laws that came into force in Canada in the late 90’s and early 2000’s including mandatory registration and bans on certain types of handguns. Prior to that, there wasn’t anything Canadian customs were too worried about coming in from the US, hence the wave-throughs in many places, but afterwards the flow of illegal and/or unregistered guns from the states became a major concern.
Sometime around 2006 (I think) I crossed over at a rural crossing in Montana and on the Canadian side they basically waved me through but on the way back the US people wanted a driver’s license and a birth certificate or passport. Which I didn’t have. Whoops! They gave me a stern talking to, but eventually let me back in… just this once.
What about Glacier National Park, for example?
It straddles the border, and has plenty of hiking trails. If you’re a wilderness backpacker, do you have to carry your passport?
Glacier-Waterton is a bit of a special situation. There’s a customs station at the south end of Waterton Lake that at least all the marked trails that cross the border go through. You can hike north of the customs station (or take the little boat trip down) from Canada without clearing US Customs. Undoubtedly you could do some bushwacking and get across without passing customs, but that’s true of most of the US-BC border.
FWIW, even though there’s not a whole lot of monitoring of the border itself, supposedly there is a fair amount of patrolling and electronic surveillance of places where the road networks on either side of the border are close. So it’s not just a matter of walking across the small swath of cleared timber that marks the border-- if you’re going to get caught it’s likely going to be at the road on either end.
If an officer deems you rehabilitated, does that go into the system and make you permanently rehabilitated, or do you have to do the song and dance each time?
I might start that paperwork. Is it discretionary or is it pretty much “shall issue” if it is only a misdemeanor and the sentence is complete?
Song and dance each time if you are deemed rehabilitate by an officer at the crossing.
The permanent rehabilitation is discretionary decision, but if the only issue is a misdemeanor DUI form 16 years ago, the odds are very high that the rehabilitation would be granted.
The risk is that that if you are turned down either at the border for the one-visit-only process or through the visits-for-the-rest-of-your-life mail-in process, then the rejection will be on file and pop up on the screen the next time you try to enter Canada. I don’t know what the procedure is for re-applying once already denied.
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There are some locations where free entry into Canada is allowed. One is the PCT hiking trail, running from Mexico/US border to the US Canadian boarder. When getting to the northern end it is more common (and legal) to continue to the nearest town in Canada at this unmanned crossing. It is required to contact them once you reach civilization. It is however illegal to enter the US this way. There are also towns that are both US and CA, with the international line down the middle of the road. Usually another call saying that you will be in town and crossing for whatever reason (someones to drive out of town it is required to drive on the other side of the road, thus another country. Also there is a small exclave of the US somewhere near Wisconsin IIRC, where one must drive into CA to get to it (I think one can do it by boat also), there is a pull over and a telephone to call to get permission. There is no school, or no high school, in this exclave, the bus to the states has to stop 2x to make this call announcing each child upon crossing for permission.
Angle Inlet, MN.
And there is a school there, just not a high school.
And yes, I know this is a zombie thread. But I couldn’t let the assertion that a bit of WI land touches Canada go uncorrected.
Note that if you live in some border states like Washington you can apply for an “Enhanced Driver’s License” or ID which is acceptable for land/sea but not air.
As others have mentioned the issue is re-entry the U.S more than Canada’s entry needs.
There’s also Point Roberts, just south of Vancouver in British Columbia.
Hyder Alaska is another example of a place that only has road access through Canada.
They even use Canadian phone numbers and the Mounties are the only police force in the area. But they do have customs to come back into Canada. I drove over to see the town in December but nothing was open and had to be re-admitted to continue my drive South back to the US.
Some areas like Haines AK, are serviced by the Alaska State Ferry which is considered a part of the Alaska Marine Highway System.