Cameras replace border guards at small Quebec crossing

[applegrove]

By Alison Northcott, CBC News

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/border-crossing-quebec-1.3823721

"SNIP............


At a tiny crossing between Quebec and Vermont, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is testing out new technology experts say could be the future of border control for small and remote crossings across the country.

Others say the pilot project sets a dangerous precedent and presents a threat to public security.

When you arrive at the Morses Line crossing from the U.S. side after 4 p.m., you aren't greeted by border guards.

Instead, non-commercial travellers drive into a garage equipped with powerful cameras, operated by a border agent hundreds of kilometres away, in Hamilton, Ont.

"The person in Hamilton has complete control of the port of entry," said Claudia Rosetti, a superintendent for the CBSA in an interview.

"They have access to the same systems in order to make the verifications as if the office were open, and the officer were on site."


.............SNIP"

[Historic NY]

1. In the old days...

there would be no one or a ledger book, sometimes I crossed and either a Canadian would be on duty or an American that would wave you through. Things sure have changed in the backwaters of our borders and inter-border cooperation

[applegrove]

2. I was thinking the contrast between Canada's border with the US and that Mexican

US border. But you are right. My parents had a coffee table book (they had lots and lots and lots of coffee table books) about Canada American relations. Called Between Friends I think. There was a photo of somebody's basement with the border line painted right through the middle of it. Sometimes people just ignored the border in the past.