Living just an hour and a half from the Canadian border

Living just an hour and a half from the Canadian border, stories about border incidents are always of

keen interest to me. To be sure, we get stories about the mistreatment of Muslim citizens at the

northern border on a regular basis, so much so that it’s really old news at that point.

It’s troubling to me how uncontroversial that policy has become, and doubly so because I’m finding

myself less and less surprised by stories of multi-hour detentions, long interrogation sessions, and

shocking hostility towards American citizens attempting to re-enter the country at a border which I

recall during my college days as being essentially open.

But these hassles apparently do not begin and end with people of Muslim faith or Middle Eastern

ethnicities. I was listening to the Toronto Vegetarian Podcast while working that afternoon, and was

surprised when the conversation, normally centered around cuisine, books, and dining locations, turned

to border crossings.