Could you guys get the stick out of your *ss...

[Buck Birdseed]

Originally posted by Taz
That's a sweeping generalisation and one I would personally dispute.

Yeah, you're right. It's the immigration officers that are the real bad apples.

[notyoueither]

Common Sense...

broke through. Somewhere, somehow.

Couldn't have hurt that it was beginning to become something of an international incident.

Powell, 'could you guys sent some troops to Iraq?'

Graham, 'maybe we could send Michel Jalbert, if you would let him out of jail.'

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1037290224274_32699424///?hub=Canada

A Quebec man arrested after driving into an American border town for gasoline was allowed to go home Thursday, after more than a month in a U.S. prison.

Moments after crossing into Canada in Claire, N.B., near Edmunston, Michel Jalbert said the U.S. had succeeded in making an example of him.

"It wasn't a pleasant experience. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

Jalbert, of Pohenegamook, Que., was let go after he signed a document admitting he illegally crossed into Maine last month, his American lawyer Jon Haddow said. The document is called a voluntary departure.

The document could be used against Jalbert, who is expected back in U.S. court in January on charges of illegal entry and possession of a firearm. The felony charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

His Quebec lawyer, Jean-Pierre Rancourt, says he'll argue his client signed the voluntary departure "with a knife to his throat." By signing the document, Jalbert avoided a lengthy process to remove him from the U.S. jail.

Haddow said Jalbert's admission that he was in the U.S. illegally will complicate the trial. He said his client's main concern was going home.

"It's sort of like a poison pill -- if you want to accept this, you've got to take this too," Haddow told The Canadian Press.

His five-year-old daughter, Debbie, was thrilled to have her father home. "This is your Christmas gift," she said, as her mother, Chantaile Chouinard, looked on.

"I was loosing hope he'd ever come home," Chouinard said in French. She is five month's pregnant with the couple's second child.

Jalbert has been away from his family since Oct. 11, when he was arrested at a gas station on the border between Quebec and Maine. He had his shotgun in his truck when border guards pulled him over at the gas pumps just inside the U.S. border. Jalbert had been on his way to a family hunting trip.

The 32-year-old pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges against him and was granted bail, but was held by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services on the grounds he violated immigration laws when he crossed the border with a shotgun in his vehicle. He also has a past criminal record in Canada.

Prosecutors objected to the bail. However, U.S. Attorney's Office it has decided not to appeal the decision to grant Jalbert bail.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham discussed Jalbert's case Thursday during a meeting in Ottawa with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. The case has prompted national media attention.

Ahead of Jalbert's release, Graham was optimistic.

"This was a case that was reflective of the type of things we can (discuss) if there is a problem between us. I mean that's a gas station he went into in which the exit ramp went into Canada," Graham said.

"That's the way Canada and the United States are. We are joined that way and we will continue to work together."

Powell said the case was "an unfortunate incident."

"It was a unique case among the 200 million back and forth every year," he told reporters.

It's unclear whether the media attention, or Graham's meeting with Powell, played any part in getting Jalbert released. Jalbert's lawyer is convinced the prosecutor backed down on orders from above because the case was becoming an embarrassment.

"Somebody talked to her. I'm sure of it because yesterday she didn't want to talk to us and she was stubborn," Rancourt said, referring to U.S. attorney Paula Silsby. "And she wanted our client to stay in jail."

Residents in his home town of Pohenegamook, Que., regularly cross the border without passing through customs.

American customs officers used to look the other way when Canadians crossed the 15 metres from the Quebec side of the community into the U.S. side of the town to get gas. But that all changed since border security was tightened following Sept. 11.

Business at Ouellet's Gaz Bar, where Jalbert was arrested, has dropped as much as 70 per cent since the incident, according to employee Jocelyn Gagne. The gas bar's pumps are in the U.S., and its driveway is in Canada.
"No one will come in now without first going to the border crossing," he told CP, referring to a crossing site about a kilometre from the gas station.

Haddow believes Jalbert is being used to send a signal that Canadians should take the border a lot more seriously.

"It's sort of like they're announcing a change in policy, and at the same time saying they're gonna be a lot tougher on release decisions and fight them a lot harder," he said.

With a report from CTV's Jed Kahane and The Canadian Press.

[MRT144]

he should just not go back to the US...that easy

and if canada turns him over to the US they have less backbone than most of use thought they already lacked

[Odin]

This shows you what happens when stupid consevatives start preaching their border control BS. Our government's paranoia has reached rediculous levels. I want to move to europe to get away from this bull! This is personal to me because I live only 150 miles from the Canadian border. At least I have an escape route if Bush starts the draft. You'll see me in Winnipeg.

[Viking Berserk]

Stupid ******* American government, they should have been shot all of them!!!

ahh, wasnt that good... I'd say let the man get his freedom back, and then the canadians should demand money from the us so they could give it to the poor guy.

[Dinner]

Re: Could you guys get the stick out of your *ss...

Originally posted by notyoueither
"There's no justice here," Jalbert told CTV News, from his Bangor, Maine prison cell. "They're keeping me locked up but I've done nothing wrong."

So he ran through a border crossing check point and illegally imported a firearm into the U.S.? If this guy did that and still claims he did nothing wrong then he must be brain damaged or something.

[Viking Berserk]

as brain damaged as you?
don't you understand, i would get really pissed if i was canadian. its like a symbol.

[Dr Strangelove]

Re: Re: Could you guys get the stick out of your *ss...

Originally posted by Oerdin


So he ran through a border crossing check point and illegally imported a firearm into the U.S.? If this guy did that and still claims he did nothing wrong then he must be brain damaged or something.

I thought that border check points were supposed to have barriers. If the checkpoint was closed why wasn't the barrier lowered? Hmmmm....maybe it's entrapment.

[Jack_www]

I just have one question, who in their right mind cross any border with a loaded gun in their car? Or who in their right mind just drives around with a gun in their car? You know if the police stop you, you will be in big trouble.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Viking Berserk
its like a symbol.

Of Canadian ignorance?

[Viking Berserk]

of american ignorance

[DinoDoc]

The Norwegien Fez!

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
The Norwegien Fez!

Olaf Fezorsonn

[notyoueither]

Uhhmm. Let's see...

Business at Ouellet's Gaz Bar, where Jalbert was arrested, has dropped as much as 70 per cent since the incident, according to employee Jocelyn Gagne. The gas bar's pumps are in the U.S., and its driveway is in Canada.
"No one will come in now without first going to the border crossing," he told CP, referring to a crossing site about a kilometre from the gas station

I don't think there were any barriers for him to break down...

and btw, many border crossings between Canada and the US are unmanned as it was in this case. We are talking about a small town that is on both sides of the border. Surely the residents of that area should be cut a little slack.

[notyoueither]

and furthermore...

In court Wednesday, Haddow presented a 1990 letter from the former director of U.S. Customs in Maine that exempted Pohenegamook residents from passing through customs for the purpose of getting gasoline.