border visit december 31, 2017

Sunday, December 31, 2017, 3.45 pm.  Roxham Road, Champlain, USA.   A bitterly cold day.  First came a shuttle bus from the airport carrying 7 adults and 6 children - some of them toddlers and all under ten years of age - in four family groups.   One family was from Nigeria.    Some people had no gloves or hats but most were ok. An RCMP officer insisted they look at the sign (regarding seeking asylum in Canada) before crossing but he did not detain them long before they crossed over.  Later there came a single man in his 40's  from Nigeria, not dressed very warmly. He was happy to take some gloves, hat and scarf and went as quickly as possible to the crossing. As he waited, two RCMP officers spoke to him, the second on in a particularly aggressive tone  asking him all kinds of questions: why are you here in the snow trying to cross into Canada, where are you from, why do you want to claim asylum? The officer also asked him whether he had a visa and the man looked confused and said he did (we assumed it was a visa for the USA).  Several times he was told to go to the Lacolle border.   He was kept standing in the cold that was at least -25C with the windchill.  The refugee was extremely polite saying  'yes sir' frequently. Finally he crossed into Canada.