Truemors
Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor
Perhaps another case of Homeland Security gone "Really, Really Stupid".
Emergency crews and Fire Departments along the US and Canada Border Towns who by mutual agreement over the last century to assist each others border towns in Fire and Ambulance emergencies are now being harrassed by overzealous US Border Guards who for some reason must feel "International Terrorisim" is Rife with our men and women in blue and harrass them at every opportunity when they return from life saving and property missions. Politicans on both sides of the border are at odds on how to resolve this, preferring to have long exhaustive steering committee meetings, fact finding tours of the area, complete with countless round table discussions all at taxpayer expense, while border towns and citizens lives hang in the balance.
Final Thought.
Actually there are US/Canada agreements in place, unfortunately Homeland Security didn't get the memo drafted in the 80's and ratified in the 90's.
In regards to men and women in blue lacking Passports, each respective country can easily pay for those who put their lives on the line to protect citizens on both sides of the border or enact the Government Act Canada and the US use for it's soldiers, whereby government ID are issued, instead of passports. Seems like a pretty easy solution, easily lost on the ineptness of large faceless Political Government Organization.
url="http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=13751a96-3975-4033-85ed-eac3ddb9efbb&k=31667"]MONTREAL -- As the U.S. government prepares to implement a passport requirement for all land border crossings next summer, local officials on both sides of the Canadian boundary say the new restrictions could complicate a century-old tradition of cross-border co-operation among firefighters.
Dundee, a small Quebec municipality in the upper St. Lawrence River valley, has relied on volunteer firefighters from nearby Fort Covington, N.Y., since a large fire swept through the area in 1888.
"They were just so pleased that Fort Covington came and helped save some of these buildings for them (that) the ladies came out with lunch for them and it's just evolved from there," said Dundee Mayor Jean Armstrong.
Today, Dundee contracts with the Fort Covington Volunteer Fire Department, whose 34 unpaid members routinely respond to fire and medical emergencies in Quebec and deliver patients to Quebec hospitals. Fort Covington is just 10 minutes from Dundee by car, closer than any fire departments or ambulance services within the province.
But volunteers in Fort Covington say they are worried that this arrangement is threatened, since few of them have passports.
"Firefighters don't have the money to pay for these passports," said John Bashaw, a former fire chief of Fort Covington and now a deputy fire co-ordinator for Franklin County in New York. "I don't see a bunch of volunteers paying $100 (for a passport) just to go to fire and (medical) calls in Canada."
Already, some firefighters say they have been hassled by U.S. border guards when returning home after responding to cross-border emergencies.
Last winter, Fort Covington fire chief Lyndon Greene left for a fire call at 2 a.m. without his wallet. Crossing into Canada was no problem, he recalls, but on the way back he and his fire truck were held at the border by a U.S. border agent.
"I didn't have my driver's licence and he didn't like that," Greene recalled. "It was 10 below zero and I had 2,000 gallons of water behind me."
Ottawa has taken notice of the issue and is asking Washington to accommodate emergency workers who routinely cross the border.
Last month, written comments were submitted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is developing the rules for next year's restrictions.
The plan, known as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, was mandated by Congress in 2004.
"We are asking that the United States establish protocols for the travel of medical, firefighting and other emergency service providers between Canada and the United States," Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said in an e-mail.
U.S. officials say that the rules, once finalized, won't compromise public safety.
"Let's not lose sight that there have been accommodations that have been made at our borders for emergency services for years," said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke in Washington. "I think that anyone that would suggest that we are somehow forgoing that authority with these new requirements would simply be misleading the public."
But politicians representing U.S. border communities in Washington also are rallying against the impending passport rule.
Congressman John McHugh, whose district forms an arc encompassing New York's entire northern border, has been pushing against the passport rule since it was proposed.
"This has been a very frustrating struggle on both sides of the border," McHugh said from Washington. He is particularly concerned because alternative documents such as the PASS Card, a wallet-sized card that Homeland Security says would cost half as much as a passport, will not be ready when the full restrictions are implemented next summer.
"Whatever workable ideas there might be out there, it's quite another matter to put them (into practice)," he said. "We're working very hard in both the House and the Senate to save (Homeland Security) from themselves - and us as well."
McHugh worries that the department's rules will snarl the border and create headaches for border agents and affiliated agencies charged with protecting public safety.
Lorne Ulley, a member of the fire department in St. Paul de l'Ile aux Noix, in Quebec, less than 18 kilometres from the border, said mutual aid among small departments in Quebec, New York and Vermont is crucial for fighting fires in the region.
One illustration of the level of co-operation: Ulley, a Canadian citizen living in Quebec, is president of the Clinton County Firefighters Association in New York.
Firefighters, often reluctant to wade into political debates, will need to remind governments and the public of the issue's importance, he said.
"We're a laid-back group," Ulley said. "They all know we have field days and barbecues. But some of them don't really appreciate what we do."
Montreal Gazette
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