high alert, i.e., “a lot of paranoia”

 

My poor friend Crystal got interrogated 3 times at Canada Customs & Immigration last night! Traveling alone with her baby, 3 separate officials grilled her about whether this really was her child and whether she really was allowed to travel alone with the baby, since she lacked that sort of documentation from her husband.

The 2nd official called Crystal's house in China! Even though he believed Crystal, he didn't give her anything saying she had passed his checkpoint, and the 3rd guy was worse than the other two put together. After questioning her to the point of tears, he made her wait while he took her passports and came out to find me and ask me all about her. I was sitting down when he came through the doors and I just had a feeling he was looking for me. I freely told him everything I could think of about Crystal. He esp. wanted to know about her marital and family status: "Is she still married to Jim? Where is he right now?" I told about each of their four children, ending with, "And then they had K this summer, obviously." (This morning I smiled wryly at my use of the word "obviously." No, it wasn’t obvious to him at all!)

In the midst of all that, Crystal forgot to claim her car seat, so we had to go back to Customs. Fortunately, the lovely official who came to the door let me go in for the car seat instead of Crystal. Officer Christine was very sweet about the whole ordeal, explaining that security checkpoints are on high alert for family abductions during the holidays. It’s such a big issue, that the Government of Canada provides a 19-page resource: International Child Abductions: A Manual for Parents. Traveling from China to Canada via the USA, poor Crystal apparently seemed suspicious and got caught in what her second questioner called "a lot of paranoia."

If only someone had communicated clearly somewhere along the line that travelers should carry proof of permission! Crystal has traveled so much with her other children—even alone with some of them as babies—and has never encountered any problems like this. Being in a healthy marriage Sometimes systems can be way too efficient!

Anyway, she's here now and we have already had such "a good giggle" as Prince William would say. Looking forward to more giggles and more friends arriving today.