Just do what you are told

I remember crossing the border at around 2 a.m. one time and getting a pretty hard time of it myself. The single occupant of a large 1977 Chevrolet Impala crossing into the United States in the middle of the night must have, I admit, sent up red flags for the border guard. This is especially true when my only reason for entry was given as "tourism". I know I spoke clearly enough that the word was not confused with another that sounds similar, but he still gave me a pretty funny look. This was also prior to 9-11 so "terrorism" might have been a little further from his mind.

Still, he had me shut off and leave the vehicle for a quick search. Camera bag held nothing but a camera. Plastic bag with two new rolls of film and a couple bags of potato chips -- no problem there. Silver metal case in trunk really did hold an air compressor and mag-lites, not a weapon. As he rummaged through the car he repeatedly asked where I was going and who I was meeting. "No where in particular" and "no one" probably wouldn't get me across the border these days. Having travelled the interstates all the time for work I wanted to see the real America. It was tough convincing him of that but he did let me through.

I was firm but polite in my conviction with the officer. Not like this guy.....

CANADIAN PRESS, VANCOUVER, B.C. - A British Columbian man has learned the hard way that you don't ask a U.S. border guard to be polite when he asks you to turn off your vehicle's engine.

Desiderio Fortunato, of Coquitlam, B.C., asked the guard to say please and instead received a face full of pepper spray.

"I just said please," Fortunato explained Thursday. "He said 'get out of the car or I spray you' and ... I thought he was just trying to scare me off or something and I was pepper sprayed from a foot or two away."

He said it was then that five or six border guards jumped on him, placed him in handcuffs and questioned him for three hours last Monday afternoon.

"I felt like I was attacked by a bunch of wolves. They jumped on me, they threw me to the ground and they kneeled on me."

But he said the worst part was the pepper spray burning his eyes, and every time he rubbed his eyes he made the problem even worse.

Fortunato, 54, was born in Portugal, but became a Canadian citizen almost 30 years ago.

During questioning from U.S. officials, he said, the first thing they wanted to know was where he was born.

He said the entire demeanour of the officials changed when he told them he was of Portuguese origin.

"Their shields dropped slightly down. It was like you know: OK he's a Westerner, OK he's not a Muslim, OK he's a Christian, he's one of us. That's what I read (from them)."

Fortunato noted that the motto of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is to "serve the American public with vigilance, integrity and professionalism."

"What is that, that's what they pledge. I'm just asking for a please, and I get pepper spray in the face, and of course their argument is you must comply with anything an officer says."

U.S. Customs spokesman Mike Milne said the officer made a lawful order that travellers must obey but the use of force is under review.

Fortunato said he spoke with the same guard later and the man seemed contrite.

He crosses the border two or three times a week to visit his second home in Blaine, Wash., and said he plans to go back.

But first he'll need to send U.S. Customs an RCMP criminal record check and proof that he lives where he said he did.

He has no criminal record and said he isn't worried about going back.

Fortunato, who travels the world competing in and teaching jazz dance, said he often deals with customs agents.

"I just become more cynical," he said.

In the end I got what I was after. Dawn broke clear and beautiful that morning in the Catskills. Late afternoon light in the Adirondacks was equally photogenic. Wish I could find those photos to scan and post them but too many moves seems to have misplaced the album. Through it all I caught not a whiff of pepper spray.