i was told by gord brown this would be settled before this weekend guess not...............
http://www.gordbrown.com/ call him or send him a email, hes a goverment mp...
Border officials acting on long-established law
'Unacceptable,' says U.S. congressman
By JAKE EDMISTON, FOR QMI AGENCY
Posted 1 day ago
Officers who fined an American man $1,000 for fishing on the wrong side of the border were acting inside a long-established law, Canadian border officials say.
On May 30, Roy Andersen of Baldwinsville, N.Y., was fishing on the Canadian side of the Gananoque Narrows when Canadian Border Services Agency officers boarded and seized his boat.
Andersen told the Watertown Daily Times newspaper the officers said he was in violation of the Canadian Customs Act that requires every visitor to Canada report to a port of entry for inspection.
Andersen said he was warned that if he didn't pay $1,000 on the spot to release his boat, the border services officers would have handcuffed both him and his passenger and forced them to lay on the floor of the boat while they were towed to shore.
"Forcing every fisherman and private boater to report to a Canadian customs office each time they enter Canadian waters is unacceptable and impractical," congressman Bill Owens wrote in a letter to Canadian ambassador Gary Doer in Washington, DC.
Reports claimed that Andersen possessed a Canadian fishing licence and hadn't docked or anchored his boat while on the Canadian side.
Chris Kealey, a spokesman for the Canadian Border Services Agency, said Canadian Border Services officers are able to use their judgement before assessing fines to violators.
Canadian boaters looking to cross into American waters have similar obligations to report to a customs office or must be enrolled in a Trusted Traveller program and call in to announce their entrance into the country.
Boaters caught violating the American law are subject to $5,000 in fines as well as seizure of their vessel, border patrol officials said.
Fines can rise to $10,000 for repeat violations.
Keith Konopa, operations specialist with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, said if a boat comes "to rest" in American waters, it's considered to have entered the country.
"If you're just sort of floating around, you've basically entered the United States," Konopa said. "If you're entering into your favourite fishing spot, you've made an entry and you should report."
Thomas Rusert, public affairs liaison at the Buffalo field office for customs and border patrol couldn't say how often boaters are fined for failing to report, but he said "it's an infrequent occurrence."
"We're not going to get into the (border patrol officers') discretion ... we're just going to tell you what the law is and leave it at that," he said.
When Owens heard of Andersen's case on the news late last week, he waited over the weekend before contacting the Canadian ambassador.
Owens told the Kingston Whig-Standard that he wanted to see if any other fisherman or boaters came forward with similar experiences.
"When it turned out it was only one incident, that further raised my suspicion that this was an unusual enforcement action," said Owens, who represents the region of New York State that encompasses the Thousand Islands.
On Monday, Owens said he was told Canadian embassy officials were investigating the matter.
"We have a lot of statutes on the books, in both the U.S. and Canada, that are not enforced," Owens said, adding that he consulted boaters in the Thousand Islands region and learned that residents on both sides cross the border go fishing without reporting their whereabouts and typically don't run into issues.
"From what I understand from people who live in the neighbourhood, this goes on all the time," he said. "What struck me was, if this was the ongoing policy, why wasn't it being enforced before?"
Canadian embassy officials are expected to return to Owens with details on the incident, to help determine whether other factors were at play that prompted the seizure.
"If there is something unusual about this, we'd certainly want to know that," Owens said.
Owens called for changes in officers' approach to violators, so that only docked boats need to report to customs.
"If we need to make a statutory change, we should do that," he said, "but I'd like some practical resolution that allows people to fish in the river and not have to go through a bureaucratic process.
"It makes no sense and it's not good for either country."
this is from the brockville recorder and times
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