Saturday, August 30, 2008

My favorite knife was confiscated at the border

There were a few less savory events that occurred on my vacation for the past few weeks. None more disappointing then my adventures of crossing the border. I was told it was a privilege to go into the United States of America but since I am a citizen of Canada they were required to let you through. But my experiences coming over the border back into Canada were far worse then going into the USA.

It took us about 45 minutes to go into the USA. That's because we were searched. I always get searched. It's a mandatory thing for me. I have a feeling it has something to do with my ethnicity. Whatever the reasoning is I am okay with it. It's better to be safe then sorry and I fully support the laws that protect us. They did let me over the border and for the next 4-5 days I had a blast in the USA.

Then it came time to come over the border to Canada. Because it seems like I always get pulled over we decided to let someone else drive as we went over the border. He was asked a very standard battery of questions. One of the questions was "Do any of you have a knife". Of course my friend knows I have a knife so he did say I do. The border crossing then asked us to pull over into the garage area. My first thought is we were going to be searched. We weren't searched.

We were surrounded by 3 border cops all advising for us to stay in the car and not to get out. They asked us to give them the knife. It must have taken me 10 minutes to try and find it. It had fallen in between the cushions and took a while to find it. I handed it to the border crossing guy. He inspected it and couldn't open it. He couldn't open it because it has a very sophisticated lock on it. A lock that ensured the blade couldn't be opened easily.

I had to explain to them how to open it. They had to remove the lock. It's very hard to remove the lock. For someone who didn't know how to do it they would have had to use both hands. He took off the lock and then pushed the trigger to open the knife. When the knife opens it automatically locks again to ensure that it can't be closed unless the user wants to close it. Once again not know how to close it I had to explain it which wasn't easy through a door.

He then spoke to the other border crossing officials and they all agreed it was a switch blade (which it wasn't). They asked me to come inside to do some paperwork. I went inside and they told me that they were going to confiscate the knife and asked me to sign something. I made it very clear to them that I was going to fight this. I asked them to take a picture with my camera phone. They were reluctant but eventually they did do it. I then signed they paperwork under duress. I felt obligated to do it. Why you may ask.

I had a relative 50 years ago kick up a fuss with the border crossing people so the story is told. He was disrespecting the border crossing guards and making them very angry. They returned there anger by stripping his car down search it. They took it apart but of course they didn't put it back together. They had to call a tow truck have it taken to the nearest garage to have it reassembled again. Let's just say my family knows to do whatever the border crossing people ask of us.

Back to the knife. I had purchased the knife in the biggest hunting retail store in Winnipeg once called SIR but now called Cabela's. Although the company has just been bought I know they have sold this knife for more then 5 years. It's my favorite knife that they sell and have been buying a few over the years whenever I damaged the old one. You can view their selection at http://www.sirmailorder.ca/show_prodlist.php?category_id=17&subcat_id=186&&PHPSESSID=5e2bfc1b980fb8e67c0b1219a640f370.

I left the border crossing very unsatisfied and without my knife. We made it to Montreal where we stayed in a hotel. The following morning I called the border crossing right away to see what I can do about trying to get my knife back. I ended up getting in touch with the border crossings supervisor and he explained what I could do to try and get the knife back. Here is the story that I got.

He first said that I can have a specialist check out the knife to confirm it's authenticity as a switch blade. He claimed that he has seen 1000's of knifes just like this one and it is illegal to sell them in Canada. They also claimed that what I had signed was me giving them permission to destroy the knife. I told them I had made it very clear to the border crossing that I was going to fight this. They should not have asked me to sign that document already knowing that I didn't want it destroyed. I explained that I had only signed it under duress. So they told that they weren't going to destroy it. They gave me a 40 day buffer period for me to refute the charges.

He did go into this little conversation about how they can't check every knife that passes over the border. Knives do make it over the border without being inspected. I then explained to them that they have a store front and are one of the biggest retail stores in Winnipeg. I offered to give them everything about the company but they didn't care. I offered to give them the website of the company but the guy still didn't care. He gave me the information I needed to get my knife back but assured me that it was unlikely to get it back.

So now I have to fight it and fight it I will. I plan to go to Cabela's and get a written reason why this is not a switch blade. I am also going to take several pictures of the store and the ones they have on display. I also plan on finding documentation on the internet that will hopefully support my claims that it is not a switch blade. I am going to give them 2 choices. Either give me my knife back or tell Cabelo's to stop selling the knife in Canada.

I'm trying not to be too anal about this but they can't give me a run around like this. They won't even investigate Cabelo's for the possibility of illegally selling knives. Wish me luck everyone. The fight is on.