CBC warns Canadians: US cops will pull you over and steal your money

If they aren’t counted the Prime Minister can pretend they don’t exist.

And winged Hussars are armoured heavy cavalry, and, yes, it has, but the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth appreciates the attention (or it would if it still existed).

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It is less of an exclusion than it is a recognition. Not that it has benefitted them much at all. Lumping them in with all Canadians or among any identifiable group within all Canadians would be ignoring their status. They are tallied separately in many ways.

Britain’s 17th Regiment of Dragoons carried and used lances. The word “dragoon” was already being used for all kinds of stuff before it apparently got hijacked by a video game! And “hussar” has the same problem. The only thing you can really count on for either is a penchant for fancy uniforms. But you’re right, I should stop dragging things off topic, sorry… sorry…

I basically understand why aboriginal people would be counted differently. Aboriginal people have a right to self-government, and it could be seen as offensive to represent them as a “visible minority.” I can see why Aboriginal people are often tallied separately.

At the same time if you are counting “visible minorities” to figure out who is going to be discriminated against by the police, it’s pretty misleading to leave them out.

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Oh not to worry, the police tally them separately too, some sort of weird calculus that results in their being the largest group in the Canadian prison system. No, the police/courts/govt definitely doesn’t leave them out in that respect…

TBH, I’d rather be a member of any other distinctly visible group than to be aboriginal/FN/Inuit in any interaction with police.

Yeah, every time Canadians are shocked by the rate at which young black men are incarcerated in America I like the point out that we do the same thing to aboriginal people here. The absolute numbers are a lot smaller (the US imprisons a truly incredible number of people) but the proportions are actually even more staggering (over 20% of the prison population and only 4% of the general population).

I’m just glad Canadian cops aren’t as trigger happy (although if we ever get the bottom of the large number of missing aboriginal women, it’s not like I’d be blown out of my seat if we find out that many were killed by cops).

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You don’t have standing to sue, because there was no criminal case against you. The criminal case was against your money itself, for being bad money suspected of being for drug purchases, just like a case about whether to kill a dog that bites people isn’t against the owner, it’s against the dog. And yes, that’s as absurd as it sounds.

But hey, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about. Even if the money you got from the cash machine smells a bit like cocaine, according to the policeman’s dog.

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Mostly Asian, not black. The percentage of minorities in Canada is extremely low for a western country. I’ve lived in Canada, and I once attended a Glenn Beck rally. They had roughly the same percentage of black people, which is to say that compared to the American population, their numbers were vanishingly small, or slightly higher than a Klan rally.

As a Canadian, I’ve been given a hard time when entering the US for only bringing a small (<$100) amount of cash with me. And shopping was not the reason for my trip. I don’t know what the right amount of cash is, but the fact I didn’t have more seemed to displease them. So I guess the lesson is: Have a large enough sum that you won’t get grief from the authorities AT the border, but a small enough sum that you won’t have it taken from you by the authorities after you’ve crossed the border. As to what that sweet-spot sum is? Your guess is as good as mine.

They were probably just trying to goad you into (on your next trip) taking enough that they could justify seizing.

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As I’ve said many times, the key to skating through customs is to stop at the duty free shop and buy something so you have something to declare.

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As I understand it the courts have held that asset forfeiture is constitutional because it is legal action against a thing, not a person. You have constitutional rights but the money in your wallet does not. So if the cops seize the money, on the suspicion that it is drug-related, but don’t charge you with anything, no violation of constitutional rights has occurred. At least I think that’s how they rationalize it.

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So if I now steal money, can I claim it to be a citizen arrest?

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My new card has a chip, and I believe by October next year this will be standard.

Why not share the actual article this is built on? The Washington Post deserves the credit – it spent tons of resources gathering this information. This is what journalism actually looks like, people. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/

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Except there are some differences between a travel advisory and investigative reporting. I’d be very surprised if the CBC were to involve themselves in investigative reporting of a problem specific to your country. The news value of this article is that the fact of “badged robbery” is well enough established that another country sees fit to issue travel advisories.

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Agreed. The more the better. The border guards, in reality, don’t want to do the paperwork.

I was referring to BB’s lack of credit for the Post’s hard work, more than anything.

Not really sure BB has to - if you read the CBC’s article, there is pretty prominent mention of the Post’s work, including a pull quote.

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