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US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

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Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#101

Post by vogt »

aanm1988 wrote: post #86
vogt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've recently relocated to Washington state and am close to the Canadian border. I thought about driving a few hours to check out the sights in BC and satisfy a many years long Tim Horton's drought this weekend (I'm originally from New England where we had Tim's for a brief shining moment in time), but decided against it after reading a plethora of instances online where Canadian authorities have done the same to peo…

I've found the Canadian guards meaner, and I'm a Canadian citizen.

On either side, the worst part is, I don't have anything to hide. I just don't want anyone digging through my personal messages or photos etc just because they can. I'm not a criminal, nor do I have any criminal history, I pay my taxes and all that other good stuff you check off a list when you go on a rant like this. Someday maybe I'll have a reason to fly in. For the interim, I remain maple dip-less.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#102

Post by Canada »

I'm always nervous entering the US and Canada. My declarations are always proper, and I carry nothing I'd be upset to have searched. The feeling is just anchored. I get searched a lot and then let go. Waste of time for all concerned.

I hate the airport security checkpoints too. I'm worried something of mine will be stolen if I get separated from it. For anyone else who feels this way, a good tip for US travel is to opt-out of those body scanners. It will take you a bit of extra time to get through, but the TSA will get your stuff from the xray and put it in a separate area, and they will always put on new gloves before touching it. They do this not out of basic respect but because they're going to test their gloves for explosives or something, but I'll take what I can get.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#103

Post by flukus »

NamTaf wrote: post #48

Over the last few years I've gone from wanting to visit the US and planning it as one of the next few holidays I'd like to do, to wanting to visit the US but holding off until 'later', to now simply not wanting to visit due to these sort of policies and actions at the border. It's a shame; US citizens are generally lovely people, the US natural environment is beautiful and, hell, the US makes killer craft beers that…

> to now simply not wanting to visit due to these sort of policies and actions at the border.

I think that's actually the best way to achieve change in this case. Will suck for the tourism industry though.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#105

Post by mc32 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #88
mc32 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see members of congress agreeing to privacy right at the border for citizens --only a very few would support the same for non-citizens, even Dems. There is no political upside to that position and it serves a very small percentage of Americans, indirectly, so, that's not going to fly.

> There is no political upside to that position In this case you have a gay Canadian man lawfully entering the United States. I think you could find vocal American constituents who care about such people not being profiled, harassed and threatened with violence on the whims of a single person.

Maybe but you'd have to prove a gay man was more likely to be turned back than a straight woman suspected of being involved in sex work. Never the less, their being non-Americans would seriously deflate most Americans' concerns about profiling.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#106

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #44
grzm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your take on the story?

It shows a hole in our rule of law. There's a case in front of SCOTUS, Hernández vs. Mesa , exploring the Constitutional protection of foreign nationals at the U.S. border [1]. In 2010, an unarmed fifteen-year-old Mexican boy was shot in the head by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The boy was in a culvert jointly patrolled by the U.S. and Mexico, but officially, the agent was in the United States and the boy in Mexico. T…

[deleted]

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#107

Post by JumpCrisscross »

mc32 wrote: post #105
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no political upside to that position In this case you have a gay Canadian man lawfully entering the United States. I think you could find vocal American constituents who care about such people not being profiled, harassed and threatened with violence on the whims of a single person.

Maybe but you'd have to prove a gay man was more likely to be turned back than a straight woman suspected of being involved in sex work. Never the less, their being non-Americans would seriously deflate most Americans' concerns about profiling.

> you'd have to prove...

Fortunately and unfortunately this is not how rallying works. You'd have to convince the right club, event and advocacy group organizers that this would produce turnout, coverage and possibly even results. Note the size of the protests against Donald Trump's recent immigration ban.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#109

Post by Uehreka »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #75
struppi wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! Also, clever technical solutions won't help when not having any data is seen as suspicious. Like, you cannot tell them "I don't know my passowrds. They are in a password safe, and I do not have access right now". When the law says you have to hand over your passwords, "I don't know them right now" is probably not a valid excuse anyway.

Do you have any basis for your last point? I legitimately don't know many of my passwords, there's no legal obligation to know them, and the law generally cant compel you to do impossible things (eg, tell them something you don't know). They can subpoena my password safe, just like any other file on my computer, and possibly require I unlock it (this is disputed), but I don't see any reason they can demand I reproduc…

The law only exists to the extent that it is enforced. If customs says "give us your passwords or you're not coming through" and you don't have a lawyer handy, then "give us your passwords or you're not coming through" is now the law (until a judge overturns it and possibly charges the officer for breaking another law).

If you can call a lawyer and don't mind waiting several hours, you can challenge it. However most people don't have a lawyer and don't know what to do and are afraid of the officers.

Re: US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

#110

Post by struppi »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #75
struppi wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! Also, clever technical solutions won't help when not having any data is seen as suspicious. Like, you cannot tell them "I don't know my passowrds. They are in a password safe, and I do not have access right now". When the law says you have to hand over your passwords, "I don't know them right now" is probably not a valid excuse anyway.

Do you have any basis for your last point? I legitimately don't know many of my passwords, there's no legal obligation to know them, and the law generally cant compel you to do impossible things (eg, tell them something you don't know). They can subpoena my password safe, just like any other file on my computer, and possibly require I unlock it (this is disputed), but I don't see any reason they can demand I reproduc…

First, IANAL, and I am not an expert for the situation in the US. So you're probably right.

But in the UK, you can go to jail for not disclosing your cryptographic keys. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law#United_King...

Here is a story of a person who went to jail for not disclosing his keys: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/24/ripa_jfl/?page=1 He said he kept silent "because of principle", but I guess he might also have gone to jail if he told them "I don't remember" - Officers would not believe him anyway.

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