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by TheVancouverObserver | April 23, 2007 at 10:54 am
1497 views | 17 Recommendations | 3 comments
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by Linda Solomon www.thevancouverobserver.com
Andrew Feldmar, a well-known Vancouver psychotherapist, rolled up to the Blaine border crossing last summer as he had hundreds of times in his career. At 66, his gray hair, neat beard, and rimless glasses give him the look of a seasoned intellectual. He handed his passport to the U.S. border guard and relaxed, thinking he would soon be with an old friend in Seattle. The border guard turned to his computer and googled "Andrew Feldmar."
The psychotherapist's world was about to turn upside down.
Born in Hungary to Jewish parents as the Nazis were rising to power, Feldmar was hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust when he was three years old, after his parents were condemned to Auschwitz. Miraculously, his parents both returned alive and in 1945 Hungary was liberated by the Russian army. Feldmar escaped from communist Hungary in 1956 when he was 16 and immigrated to Canada. He has been married to Meredith Feldmar, an artist, for 37 years, and they live in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. They have two children, Soma, 33, who lives in Denver, and Marcel, 36, a resident of L.A. Highly respected in his field, Feldmar has been travelling to the U.S. for work and to see his family five or six times a year. He has worked for the UN, in Sarajevo and in Minsk with Chernobyl victims.
But he was about to learn that at today's borders, past and present are one and the same, as the United States of America permanently closed its doors on him.
Read the rest of this article on www.thevancouverobserver.com by award-winning investigative reporter Linda Solomon.
You may never feel the same about posting personal material on the internet again.
Andrew Feldmar is pictured in photo. Photo by C. Grabowski
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 13:09 on April 23rd, 2007
lindailenesolomon, this is an incredible piece of journalism. I'm so terrified of border guards, and this did nothing to alleviate my concerns. In fact, I'm worse off I think. That's how I know you've done an amazing job. Keep it up.
at 13:10 on April 23rd, 2007
lindailenesolomon, this is a fabulous article. I encourage all NP members to click through and read this.
Linda, I recommend you hyperlink to the article so people can just click through. Also - and this is my greedy corporate self speaking - I wish you would add a bit more to your teaser (even though as a taste of what to come - you've done a fine job.)
One last thing: you are obviously a talented writer with a keen journalist's eye - but your member page hints of none of this. Might you be persuaded to add a bit more here & there?
These are just quibbles of course. We are delighted to have your presence at NowPublic.
at 12:48 on April 24th, 2007
lindailenesolomon, I like this story. It's good stuff.
"The War on Drugs meets the War on Terror."
This is chilling. The Vancouver article explains that it isn't just a conviction for an offense that can get you barred, the professor wrote about an experience that had happened years ago, and he happened to write about it in an online journal, and that was how he got 'tagged'.
Other respected scholars and musicians are being barred because of "ideological convictions" or connections, even vague ones.
The U.S. Consulate explained to the professor that even Americans with decades-old DUI convictions are being denied entrance to Canada.