Patriots Raise The American Flag While Canadian Cowards Run
While hundreds of ordinary Americans stood watching in the morning sunshine Monday, an Oregon National Guard Company raised a huge 30′ by 60′ American flag on a 100′ flagpole. The citizens of Sutherlin, Oregon turned out in force to witness the inaugural flag raising at a memorial adjacent to the I-5 corridor. Two other flags - an Oregon state flag and a POW-MIA flag - were also raised on their own 60′ poles.
A heartwarming scene to be sure, at least for most of us, but hardly what you would characterize as dramatic. But reading about this ceremony made me think of a truly dramatic story that recently played out at the U.S. - Canadian Border. You see, two desperate murder suspects passed by this very spot less than a month ago as they drove up I-5 heading for the Canadian border.
Neither of the suspects, wanted for murder in California and described as extremely dangerous, are U.S. citizens. Ishtiaq Hussain is from Pakistan and Jose Antonio Barajas is from Mexico. The reason they chose to drive towards Canada instead of Mexico has a lot to do with the porosity of our border with Canada and the ease with with undocumented foreigners can move around once in Canada.
The flag-raising ceremony in Sutherlin and the incident that transpired when the two fugitives reached the border provides a stark contrast between the two countries.
The border crossing is manned by both Americans and Canadians, but when news was radioed to the border that the suspect’s car had been spotted less than ten miles south, literally dozens of Canadian border officers deserted their posts out of fear for their personal safety. It was left to the Americans to apprehend the desperados, which they did.
After ramming their car and a subsequent shootout, the men were arrested about a yard from the Canadian border. Canadian officials quickly issued a statement for the benefit of less-civilized Americans explaining that border security is still as tight as ever. Paula Shore of the Canada Border Services Agency said, “We still have highly trained people on the front lines doing their job.”
Well, what about the dozens of “highly trained” officers who ran for the hills? Shore’s answer leaves you wondering if Canada feels any commitment at all to assisting the U.S. with border security, “any worker has the right to refuse to work if they feel they are in imminent danger.” Fortunately for us, the suspects were still on U.S. soil when apprehended.
Considering that all of the known terrorists who have been arrested in the U.S. since 9/11 came here by way of Canada, the same level of attention we are giving to the border with Mexico needs to be focused on our northern border.
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:40 pm
First of all our border guards in canada are unarmed and the incident you are talking about was responded to by the RCMP. We are always apprehending your criminals that you have running to our borders.
Furthermore to get into the U.S. you have to pass U.S. border guards so if they get in over there its a wonder why they would get past us. When they do slip in its our fault everyone says but they fail to mention they got by yours too.
Last but not least when 9/11 hit all planes were diverted and had to land in Canada ( we had to take the risk of other hijackers) and let these displaced americans stay in our homes for weeks at a time Try that in L.A. or N.Y or any city in the U.S..
Canadian
September 15th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Sean LeBlanc,
couldn’t agree more. I don’t know about the particular incident in question so I will refrain from commenting specifically upon it. With the 9/11 question though I have always been peeved that Canada gets the blame for having been the North American starting point for the terrorists, and our border commitment is therefore questioned. It was the American border guards who let them in to America after all! Further, as Sean said, in Newfoundland Canadians aided hundreds of diverted American travellers in their time of need, and every year hundreds still come back to visit Canada and describe the people and the hospitality as extraordinary.