Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Canadian Border Control screws Amish
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2025 18:00:36 -0400
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On 2025-03-24 10:48 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
> On Mar 24, 2025 at 6:09:32 PM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> On 2025-03-24 1:39 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
>>>   On Mar 24, 2025 at 3:30:06 AM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com>
>>>   wrote:
>>>   
>>>>   On 2025-03-24 2:07 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>>>>     According to this video, Canadian Border Patrol enforces a law requiring
>>>>>     Canadians to download what is essentially privacy-violating application
>>>>>     onto smart phones with lots of personal details including medical
>>>>>     records. If they don't, there's a $6,000 fine imposed including against
>>>>>     children.
>>>>>     
>>>>>     Numerous Amish found they had liens imposed against their farms.
>>>>>     Obviously they don't use smart phones.
>>>>>     
>>>>>     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scrtSExvu3g
>>>>
>>>>   Just to be completely accurate, the agency that is charged with guarding
>>>>   our border is the Canadian Border Services Agency, not the Canadian
>>>>   Border Patrol. But even most Canadians probably don't know the proper
>>>>   name so I won't hold that against you ;-)
>>>>
>>>>   As for this app that you are supposedly required to have, I've never
>>>>   heard of it and definitely don't have it on *my* smart phone. I've lived
>>>>   here all my life so if it really *is* mandatory, it is only mandatory
>>>>   for specific people or classes of people. It may well be for frequent
>>>>   border-crossers. (I haven't crossed the border to the US in 20+ years.)
>>>>
>>>>   I know there's a system called Nexus that has some documentation
>>>>   requirements which apparently puts you in a much shorter line at border
>>>>   crossing points so that may be what the video is talking about. But you
>>>>   can still cross without Nexus, or so I was told by a former colleague
>>>>   who frequently crossed the border. You just have to deal with a much
>>>>   longer line and can expect to wait several hours at times.
>>>>
>>>>   [Pause]
>>>>
>>>>   Okay, I just watched the video and they're talking about ArriveCan, not
>>>>   Nexus. ArriveCan was an app the Liberals had built during Covid. They
>>>>   paid many millions of dollars to get a consulting firm to build it as a
>>>>   way to track people coming into the country but it subsequently came out
>>>>   that two people built it in a single weekend so they must have paid
>>>>   themselves very handsomely indeed - or kicked a lot of it back to some
>>>>   Liberal slush fund. (It must be a mess too because it takes considerably
>>>>   longer to build a robust and thoroughly tested app than a single
>>>>   weekend. You might be able to build a simple UNTESTED app in that time
>>>>   if you're a skilled developer but writing and running all the tests
>>>>   successfully is almost unimagineable. You can't even DESIGN an app that
>>>>   fast unless it is EXTREMELY trivial, let alone build and test it.) There
>>>>   was a *lot* of talk about ArriveCan in the news during Covid and believe
>>>>   me, it was not people praising it or the government.
>>>   
>>>   I downloaded when I was thinking about driving from L.A. to Anchorage in
>>> case
>>>   I had to pass through Canadia at some point and it is incredibly intrusive
>>> in
>>>   what information it requires you to give them.
>>>   
>>>   The arrival of Midnight in my household has so far put that trip on hold,
>>>   however, so I never actually had to use the app.
>>>   
>> Have you ever considered taking Midnight with you on your trip? I'm not
>> saying you should but a friend of mine did it once on a trip from
>> London, Ontario out to Calgary, Alberta with her Maine coon cat and said
>> it went much better than she expected. She said the first four or five
>> hours were difficult but they were driving in heavy traffic when it was
>> raining hard and the water splashing up on the car from the passing cars
>> may have terrified the cat. But five hours out of a three or four day
>> trip isn't that bad. She managed to find motels that accepted pets
>> easily enough - I didn't know there were such things - and also said she
>> never lost the cat once when they stopped at roadsides to answer
>> nature's call.
> 
> I drive with her back and forth to Texas for Christmas every year and she
> doesn't mind the car at all. After we get up to freeway speed, she just crawls
> under my seat and sleeps. She makes it five or six hours of driving with no
> need to stop to poop or pee. Most of the extended stay hotels (Marriott
> Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, etc.) all allow pets, so that's no problem. I set
> the litter box up first thing when we stop for the night at the hotel and fill
> her bowl with water and she makes a beeline right for them. Have never had any
> issues with accidents in the car.
> 
> An Alaska trip is problematic, though, because a lot of it would be on the
> Marine Highway and I have no idea how several days on a boat would work with a
> cat. Would we have a cabin? Could I set up a litter box in it? If not where
> would she do her business? Do they even allow pets?
> 
> There are so many logistical questions to deal with that it didn't seem worth
> it.

I imagine a phone call or email to the people who operate the ferry 
would be able to answer that, as would their website....

> 
>> I was quite surprised at the whole idea of travelling with a cat but she
>> made it seem feasible. I should make clear that she was travelling
>> alone: just her and the cat.
>>
>> As for the ArriveCan app being intrusive, I'm not terribly surprised. I
>> think the bureaucrat's default inclination - at least in this country -
>> is to get as much information as possible and only reduce the
>> requirements when they get too much pushback. They probably think the
>> average person is just going to be docile and give them whatever they
>> ask for so why not go for the maximum information, even if it's more
>> than they need. If *I* was designing these things, I'd ask for the
>> absolute bare minimum of information but that's just me.
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Rhino