As my wife and I sat alone in our home self-isolating, we recalled the days before COVID-19 and, forgive me, before Donald Trump. The border between Canada and the U.S. was a friendly border back then. I can recall when a driver's licence was all one needed to cross into the States.
We would leave London for the U.S. in our aging roadster with a body that was aging more gracefully than our own. We'd visit friends in the Detroit area, we'd lunch in a wonderful small-town diner, we'd cruise the backcountry roads and enjoy the hospitality.
Those days may be over for awhile. Social distancing may become the norm. And crossing the border now takes a passport. It is not so easy anymore. The border restrictions have tightened on both sides. Just the other day Prime Minister Trudeau announced asylum seekers attempting to enter Canada from any entry point along the Canada-U.S. border will be returned to the States.
According to the Globe and Mail, possibly the most influential paper in Canada, "More than 57,000 asylum seekers have entered Canada through unauthorized border crossings since 2017, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a crackdown on illegal immigration."
"Most of the asylum seekers have been able to remain in Canada through a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement (a loophole the U.S. under Trump has not honoured) . . . . refugee advocacy groups have encouraged the government to make it easier for people fleeing the U.S.
to seek asylum in Canada, and are disappointed with the decision. Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, called the move 'beyond disappointing and disgraceful.' "
Some have called Prime Minister Trudeau's move downright un-Canadian.
You know, somedays being isolated isn't so bad.
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