This makes no sense - one can export from the USA practically whatever
one wants. What law in the US says one must tell customs one is
exporting a tankfull of gas? Was he really arrested for the
ancillary charges mentioned and is using the gas as a reason, when it
really isn't? Maybe he was really just arrested for entering the US
and not having gone to immigration (as opposed to customs).
Is this little area of the US between the border and the customs house
a "tax free zone" within which no tax on gas is charged, and perhaps
there is a tax issue?
I cannot believe US customs would so negatively impinge on an American
entrepreneur's market by scaring customers away. Customs is in
business to protect American commerce, not to strangle sales at a gas
station of an unrationed, uncontrolled product. If gas tax was
charged in this little zone, scaring Canadians away from tanking up
only hurts the State's tax income - and if I were a state official,
I'd ask in Washington about what in the world a federal official was
doing damaging a sovereign states' interest like that (if it's true).
I have a sneaking suspicion that there's something more to this than
the article reveals, or the article is tilted.
Regards
Len Nadybal
Len Nadybal
--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "Doug Murray Productions" <doug@d...> wrote:
> This from the Globe and Mail newspaper:
>
> From globeandmail.com, Wednesday, October 30, 2002
>
> Man jailed for cross-border gas trip
>
> OTTAWA -- U.S. Customs used to look the other way in the small
border city of Pohenegamook, Que., allowing Canadians to fill up at a
gas station 15 metres inside the United States without formalities.
But the last time Michel Jalbert casually crossed over for gas, the
U.S. Border Patrol put him in jail, where he has been for 19 days.
>
>
> His lawyers say he could stay in prison for another four months or
more because U.S. authorities are in no mood to negotiate. Canada's
Foreign Affairs Minister says there is nothing he can do.
>
>
> And the community of Pohenegamook, which has some houses that
literally straddle the two countries, is irate that the cross-border
co-operation they enjoyed for years has been cut off.
>
>
> "It could have been almost anyone I know," said Pohenegamook Mayor
Serge Fortin. "What's shocking is that the Border Patrol did not want
to take account of local customs we have here. We are feeling a
zealousness."
>
>
> The gas station was built on the U.S. side of the border about 20
years ago to lure people to cheaper prices. It sits just past Canada's
border post, but the U.S. border post is a kilometre farther away. So
even though Canadians going to fill up are supposed to check in at the
U.S. border post, few do. And that has been the custom for years.
>
>
> "Everyone does that here in Pohenegamook," said Guy Leblanc, the
Canadian Customs officer in the city of about 3,000. "People don't
report to U.S. Customs. They go directly to the gas station, and
that's been tolerated for at least 10 years."
>
>
> So on Oct. 11, Mr. Jalbert, a 32-year-old forestry worker, drove to
fill up at the gas station, but didn't bother to check in at the U.S.
border post. At any rate, the U.S. Customs post had closed an hour
before, at 2 p.m.
>
>
> But as Mr. Jalbert headed back to the Canadian side, he was arrested
by a U.S. Border Patrol officer, who saw his hunting rifle in the back
-- moose season was to open the next day -- and found he had a minor
criminal record from breaking windows when he was 20. He was arrested
and now sits in a jail in Bangor, Me.
>
>
> "This makes no sense at all," said Mr. Jalbert's brother Richard.
"Now they're telling us he could get four months or six months.
Where's the logic?"
>
>
> Chantale Chouinard, Mr. Jalbert's pregnant wife, is making regular
five-hour trips to visit him.
>
>
> In the House of Commons yesterday, Bloc Quebecois MP Paul Crete
called on Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham to intervene.
>
>
> Mr. Graham said he would urge U.S. officials to use "restraint," but
that little can be done by Canada.
>
>
> Mr. Fortin, the mayor, said the decision to try to jail Mr. Jalbert
for months could signal a new toughness on the part of U.S. officials
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but he added that the
arrest was made by a new border patrol officer who is a stickler.
>
>
> The sudden change of attitude has upset local residents, some of
whom were placed on the border when a 1942 settlement of a dispute saw
the border line drawn right through the middle of a few houses. The 15
houses on the U.S. side still get power from Hydro-Quebec and water
from Pohenegamook, Mr. Fortin said.
>
>
> U.S. Customs officials handling the case could not be reached
yesterday.
>
>
>
> Doug Murray Productions / Border Films
> CBC Infomatrix / CBC POV Sports
> Vancouver BC 604-728-1407
>
> Best Vancouver excuse for being late for work:
> "A movie was being shot and they detained me for continuity."