I can't think of anything smart-arsed to say about this from this morning's Toronto Star:
On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Me., carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chainsaw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres...Bill Anthony, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question...Then they let him into the United States...Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chainsaw could not be detained.Seem obvious to me - before I have that first cup of coffee - that, under section 15 of Part 3 of the Schedule to Federal Regulation SOR/98462, at least the possession of the brass knuckles is a crime in the only country the person has just left as that provision is defined in section 4 of Federal Regulation SOR/98462 as follows:
The weapons listed in Part 3 of the schedule are prohibited weapons for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition "prohibited weapon" in subsection 84(1) of the Criminal Code.Once a weapon is prohibited there is a range of charges in around section 88 of the Criminal Code of Canada in relationship to it including:
Every person commits an offence who carries or possesses a weapon, an imitation of a weapon, a prohibited device or any ammunition or prohibited ammunition for a purpose dangerous to the public peace or for the purpose of committing an offence.So...if having a chainsaw dripping human blood, having umpteen other things that may be prohibited weapons as well as having brassknuckles and coming from the only country you could be coming from where having those things is a crime is not a reason to detain someone pending making a call to investigate what happened in that other country...what exactly is reason to make that call?
Comments
Alan - June 8, 2005 9:48 AM
Other odd observations in The Globe and Mail:<blockquote class="smalltext">On the day Mr. Despres crossed the border, he was due in a Canadian court to be sentenced on charges of assaulting and threatening to kill Mr. Fulton's son-in-law, Frederick Mowat, last August...<p> Mr. Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing.</blockquote>Just to confirm, people do hitchhike with chainsaws dripping with human blood and get picked up. Your mother was right.
'nee - June 8, 2005 5:29 PM
>> what exactly is reason to make that call
Being Arab, of course. Silly Alan.
Arthur - June 8, 2005 7:24 PM
people do hitchhike with chainsaws dripping with human blood and get picked up. Your mother was right.
I feel a movie idea coming up...
Alan - June 11, 2005 12:21 AM
My oh my:<blockquote class="smalltext">A man named Eddie Young said he sat next to Despres at the customs office when the agents processed them, telling the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal he heard Despres tell custom officers he was a trained killer. "That's the reason I remember him. He said he was an assassin," Young was quoted as saying. "When he came in they opened his bag up and they took out, it looked like large bayonets to me but they could have been a little bit longer for swords, and then two pairs of brass knuckles fastened on to his bag, a chainsaw and what looked like a flak jacket, a bulletproof vest." Young said customs officers appeared to be joking around with the swords. "I watched the Customs guys fling the swords around in the back room," Young said. "I mean, wouldn't the evidence be ruined with their fingerprints?" Young said officials treated Despres well. <p>"When I came back in they were giving him a coffee," Young told the newspaper. "He got processed faster than I did." Young said he was detained at the border because he was arrested in Ottawa almost 20 years ago for drug possession.</blockquote>
SayNay? - June 11, 2005 2:46 PM
Did they check the bowling ball bag - you know, the one with the head in it? I guess "assassin" would qualify as a "work-related" entry?