GOING TO CANADA? CHECK YOUR PAST

Tourists With Minor Criminal Records Turned Back At Border

There was a time not long ago when a trip across the border from the
United States to Canada was accomplished with a wink and a wave of a
driver's license. Those days are over.

Take the case of 55-year-old Lake Tahoe resident Greg Felsch. Stopped
at the border in Vancouver this month at the start of a planned
five-day ski trip, he was sent back to the United States because of a
DUI conviction seven years ago. Not that he had any idea what was
going on when he was told at customs: "Your next stop is immigration."

Felsch was ushered into a room. "There must have been 75 people in
line," he says. "We were there for three hours. One woman was in
tears. A guy was sent back for having a medical marijuana card. I
felt like a felon with an ankle bracelet."

Or ask the well-to-do East Bay couple who flew to British Columbia
this month for an eight-day ski vacation at the famed Whistler
Chateau, where rooms run to $500 a night. They'd made the trip many
times, but were surprised at the border to be told that the husband
would have to report to "secondary" immigration.

There, in a room he estimates was filled with 60 other concerned
travelers, he was told he was "a person who was inadmissible to
Canada." The problem? A conviction for marijuana possession.

In 1975.

Welcome to the new world of border security. Unsuspecting Americans
are turning up at the Canadian border expecting clear sailing, only
to find that their past -- sometimes their distant past -- is
suddenly an issue.

While Canada officially has barred travelers convicted of criminal
offenses for years, attorneys say post-9/11 information-gathering,
combined with a sweeping agreement between Canada and the United
States to share data, has resulted in a spike in phone calls from
concerned travelers.

They are shocked to hear that the sins of their youth might keep them
out of Canada. But what they don't know is that this is just the
beginning. Soon other nations will be able to look into your past
when you want to travel there.

"It's completely ridiculous," said Chris Cannon, an attorney
representing the East Bay couple, who asked that their names not be
used because they don't want their kids to know about the pot rap.
"It's a disaster. I mean, who didn't smoke pot in the '70s?"

We're about to find out. And don't think you are in the clear if you
never inhaled. Ever get nabbed for a DUI? How about shoplifting? Turn
around. You aren't getting in.

"From the time that you turn 18, everything is in the system," says
Lucy Perillo, whose Canada Border Crossing Service in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, helps Americans get into the country.

Canadian attorney David Lesperance, an expert on customs and
immigration, says he had a client who was involved in a fraternity
prank 20 years ago. He was on a scavenger hunt, and the assignment
was to steal something from a Piggly Wiggly supermarket. He got
caught, paid a small fine and was ordered to sweep the police station
parking lot.

He thought it was all forgotten. And it was, until he tried to cross
the border.

The official word from the Canadian Border Services Agency is that
this is nothing more than business as usual. Spokesman Derek Mellon
gets a little huffy when asked why the border has become so strict.

"I think it is important to understand that you are entering another
country," Mellon says. "You are not crossing the street."

OK, but something changed here, didn't it?

"People say, 'I've been going to Canada for 20 years and never had a
problem,' " Lesperance says. "It's classic. I say, 'Well, you've been
getting away with it for 20 years.' "

A prior record has always made it difficult to cross the border. What
you probably didn't know was that, as the Canadian Consulate's Web
site says, "Driving while under the influence of alcohol is regarded
as an extremely serious offense in Canada."

So it isn't as if rules have stiffened. But what has changed is the
way the information is gathered. In the wake of 9/11, Canada and the
United States formed a partnership that has dramatically increased
what Lesperance calls "the data mining" system at the border.

The Smart Border Action Plan, as it is known, combines Canadian
intelligence with extensive U.S. Homeland Security information. The
partnership began in 2002, but it wasn't until recently that the
system was refined.

"They can call up anything that your state trooper in Iowa can,"
Lesperance says. "As Canadians and Americans have begun cooperating,
all those indiscretions from the '60s are going to come back and haunt us."

Now, there's a scary thought. But the irony of the East Bay couple's
situation is inescapable. Since their rowdy days in the '70s, they
have created and sold a publishing company, purchased extensive real
estate holdings and own a $3 million getaway home in Lake Tahoe.

"We've done pretty well since those days," she says. "But what I
wonder is how many other people might be affected."

The Canadian Border Services Agency says its statistics don't show an
increase in the number of travelers turned back. But Cannon says
that's because the "data mining" has just begun to pick up momentum.

"It is too new to say," he says. "Put it this way. I am one lawyer in
San Francisco, and I've had four of these cases in the last two
years, two since January. And remember, a lot of people don't want to
talk about it (because of embarrassment)."

Asked if there were more cases, attorney Lesperance was emphatic.

"Oh, yeah," he says. "Just the number of calls I get has gone up. If
we factor in the greater ability to discover these cases, it is just
mathematically logical that we are going to see more."

The lesson, the attorneys say, is that if you must travel to Canada,
you should apply for "a Minister's Approval of Rehabilitation" to
wipe the record clear.

Oh, and by the way, if you don't need to travel to Canada, don't
think you won't need to clear your record. Lesperance says it is just
a matter of time before agreements are signed with governments in
destinations like Japan, Indonesia and Europe.

"This," Lesperance says, "is just the edge of the wedge."

Who would have thought a single, crazy night in college would follow
you around the world? Rules for getting into Canada

For more information on offenses that prohibit entry to Canada, go to
the Canadian Consulate's Web site at
geo.international.gc.ca/can-am/seattle/visas/inadmissible-en.asp.

For more information on visiting Canada, go to cic.gc.ca.