border visit 10 july 2022

A warm sunny afternoon.  We arrived shortly after 3pm.  The police officers did not come out to check who we were.  It was a long wait until 4.10pm when the first taxi arrived.  The driver brought five people,  all from Haiti.  They included a  man in his 40s, a man in his late 20's and a family of three with a little girl about 1.5 years old.  Some accepted the offer of a glass of water to drink.  The refugees spoke mainly Kreyol and we had a limited exchanges in French.  The RCMP officer gave his speech in French without intimidation and everyone crossed into Canada without incident.  At one point we saw the officer holding the hand of the little girl who seemed to be making friends with him.

At about 4.25pm the second taxi arrived. He brought three friendlyTurkish men, two in their 20's and the other aged about 40. None of them spoke English or French.  None of them had any luggage aside from two small plastic bags.  Two men took a glass of water. There was a fourth  man in the taxi from Haiti. He was very anxious and we were not really able to speak with him in French. He told us he spoke Kreyol and said the same to the police officer.   He crossed first.   Clearly the Turkish men did not understand what the police officer told them but they crossed into Canada without difficulty. The officer spent quite a bit of time using gestures to convey to them what he wanted them to do such as removing the contents of their pockets etc.  The two officers behaved respectfully with the refugees.  We waited until 5 pm and no more taxis arrived: a  total of nine people crossed during our visit.