U.S. border patrols watching for Canadian cell phone users
As newly-elected U.S. President Donald Trump vows to “make America great again” through measures ensuring an “America first” foreign policy, Canadian travelers have fallen under the watchful eye at the Canada-U.S. border because cell phones are perceived threats to U.S. national security.
According to a Global News report, one group of individuals was stopped and detained for two hours, forced to unlock and reveal the contents of their mobile phones for inspection, and eventually they were denied entry into the U.S. altogether.
Scott Bardsley, a spokesperson for Canada’s public safety minister Ralph Goodale, stated in an email statement to Global News that the United States, as with other foreign countries, is “sovereign and able to make its own rules to admit people and goods to manage its immigration framework, health and safety.” Therefore, “goods accompanying a traveler may be searched to verify admissibility,” stated Bardsley.
So what’s your take, illFixers? Does American foreign policy give you a fuzzy warm feeling inside as the national border enters into view through your windscreen on the highway? We think privacy penetrates all part of a person’s life, and our cellular devices are precious vaults into our personal lives and social networking that can’t be excluded. If traveling into a country equally democratic and free as our own Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms affords us as Canadian Citizens, shouldn’t our constitutional rights follow us across an allied country’s borders?