Alternative to biometrics: Google search
U.S. border guards Google the names of Canadians trying to enter the U.S., and it does not take much to turn would-be visitors away — at times, for life
Andrew Feldmar, a British Columbia psychotherapist, was denied entry to the United States when a border guard Googled his name and found a reference to an article Feldmar wrote in which he described an Aldous-Huxley-like experiment involving hallucinogens he took 40 years ago. The Montreal Mirror reports that Feldmar, who has no criminal record, has visited the United States hundreds of times, and two of his children live there. Last summer, he was stopped randomly at the border, and an agent Googled his name and found the reference to the article. Feldmar admitted he wrote the article, and the agent told him he was “undesirable” because he had used an illegal substance. The guard took Feldmar’s fingerprints and sent him back from the border. Back in Vancouver, Feldmar contacted the U.S. consulate, but received a form e-mail telling him that “Waiver is the only way” for him to enter the United States. To get a waiver, the U.S. consulate advised, Feldmar would have to prove that he was rehabilitated.
