We flew into Vancouver airport at around four o'clock today. As we passed through customs Anita and I were waved through with our carts piled high with production equipment. Shannon was pulled out of the line and was whisked away into a Immigration's warren of offices. Anita and I were left in the large waiting area as Shannon went through an awful ordeal. It seems that the authorities were convinced that Shannon was getting paid to work in Canada - this is illegal as the assumption is that any money she makes is taking a job away from Canadian citizens. The authorities took away her phone and computer, scanned them for incriminating e-mails and messages, and then interrogated her for two hours. The woman who was her interrogator was totally convinced that Shannon was here to make a documentary and was somehow getting paid to do it (anyone who makes documentaries knows how foolish that assumption was) and produced e-mails from us to Shannon about the logistics of the trip where we talked about paying for her ticket to Vancouver. In the end they ended up calling us and we verified everything that Shannon had said and she was released.
I guess what bothers me the most is the powerlessness that we have in situations like this - our reasoning, negotiating and verbal skills mean nothing against someone who is so convinced of a person's guilt. It also makes me think of the many parts of the world where this kind of interrogation and abuse are daily occurrences - I am particularly thinking of the Palestinians who must wait in lines for hours to pass check points - never knowing whether they will get to the work or back to their families. We are privileged Americans and we can be overwhelmed by the system - imagine those who are poor and don't know the language who are routinely abused by the protectors of our political and economic borders.
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