Barked at like a dog.  Interrogated like a thief.  Intimidated by authority.  Am I a criminal?  Nope.  I'm just a Canadian wanting to take a trip into the United States.  And with tougher rules in place to cross the border by 2007, there may not be as much travel for me and other Canucks down south in the future.  Canadians who want to spend any amount of time in the U.S. will be required to present a passport or other "secure documentation" before being allowed to cross the border - even by car - by the end of the year.  But if the current experience of travelling by plane is any indication of what these people are in for, many Canucks may rethink their trip all together.

       Recently I ventured to Los Angeles for a winter holiday.  Like many other Canadians I wanted to escape the cold and enjoy the California beaches.  Once I was there, I had a great time.  But for a moment I was concerned that I wouldn't even leave Canadian soil.

       To travel by airplane within Canada passengers only need photo identification.  But to travel by plane to the U.S., Canadians need photo ID, proof of citizenship, excellent persuasion skills and a darn good reason for smiling at the customs officer.

       In the Calgary airport is where I entered U.S. Customs and Immigration and the fun began.  First the officers barked orders at the travellers to have the correct documentation available and tried to organize the group into three different lines.  Once at an officer's wicket, if a person didn't have the declaration paperwork filled out correctly he or she was sent away to the end of the line to make changes and face their doom again.  The good thing about this was it gave the individual more of a chance to rehearse their answers.  Many people were sent to an office to have paperwork checked over again and undergo a further interrogation.  I was one of those people.  What makes the officer choose who gets through and who doesn't is often a mystery.  There were travellers who were dressed poorly, barely spoke a word of English and were nervous as they fumbled through their documents, as well as professional-looking business people with briefcase in hand.  So it appeared that how a person looked didn't have anything to do with the decision.

       I was sent to the office, ordered to present my identification at the counter and yelled at to sit in a glass-walled room with American flags and pictures of prominent U.S. figures surrounding me.  I listened to the officer tear a piece out of two young Australian tourists who apparently didn't have the right answers to the questions being barked at them.  They were sent away to try and retrieve the necessary paperwork to continue with their travels.  A middle-aged Middle Eastern woman was seated beside me and was called up next.  The officer made several phone calls throughout his conversation with her.  After about 10 minutes of pleading her case, she was granted permission to continue on her way to her U.S.-bound flight.

       I was up next -- a well-dressed, twentysomething, Caucasian male, with all proper documentation in hand.  I'm not normally intimidated by authority and this time was no different.  I kept it cool, but also didn't seem desperately trying to impress the American officer by kissing his butt like the other travellers.  Questions like "What do you do for a living?", "Where did you go to school?", "Who are you meeting (in L.A.)?", "Where are you staying?" were fired at me and I had answers for all of them.  However, I did learn that smiling is a bad thing because the officers feel threatened that you find something funny when the whole process should be looked at as very serious.  For a few minutes, what seemed like an eternity, I was unsure that I would be allowed to cross the border and worried I had wasted several hundred dollars on my plane tickets.  Eventually, and with a sigh of relief, I was handed back my identification and told to proceed through.  Thinking I was in the clear from any more bullying I started packing up my belongings when the officer told me to hurry up and get out of the office.

       Was being prepared with correct, truthful answers and a hint of a friendly Canadian smile what got me into this time-consuming and nerve-racking ordeal?  Not to say I was being regarded as a terrorist, but those people are usually far more prepared for the tough questions than the average traveller.  I understand the point of being cautious when allowing travel to another country, but why treat everyone like a common criminal?  In both Canada and the U.S. there is the belief that you are "innocent until proven guilty."  Why not apply this statement to all situations instead of just criminal ones?

       But now with stricter rules coming for Canadians who just want to spend one day down south, even just for a drive, is this a step in the wrong direction for having an open-border policy between Canada and the U.S.?  If these day-travellers have to go through what the other California-bound tourists and I went through this winter, I can assure you that many people will say "forget it" to the notion of visiting the military-state nation to the south.  With increasingly heightened security, many Canadians will not want to travel by car for several hours with fingers crossed upon arrival at the border with the hopes of being allowed to enter "the free world" only to be turned away because of giving a "wrong answer."  With hiked up airfare prices, many people are also going to rethink spending hundreds of dollars on airline tickets with the greater chance of not being able to reach their final U.S. destination.

       For two countries that have expressed interest in having free trade and an "open-border" policy, this certainly may be a closed-minded decision that will see less travel to the States for Canadians who, if they wanted to be treated like an animal, would head over to the local dog pound.  We've all seen disregard for human life in the United States throughout the years, and that is just towards its own citizens.  So how can visitors expect to have an easier time and be treated any better?  I guess we can't.