Olympic Outsiders

If you can't be inside the Olympic Games, then follow Seattle Times producers, reporters, videographers and Olympic fans as we take you to the streets of Vancouver, B.C., to show you what's happening on the ground and give you a taste of the scene swirling around the 2010 winter games.

February 10, 2010 at 4:45 PM

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Tales from the U.S. Canada border

Posted by Kristi Heim

Heading north into Vancouver around 11 a.m. today, we had a quick check of our passports and credentials and sailed through the border at the Peace Arch without another car in sight. No one even asked us to define the rules of curling or which Campbell was the better mayor.

Has the mandate changed since the well publicized grilling of journalist Amy Goodman as she headed into Canada in November? What has been your experience crossing the border?

Here's a story from Sandi Doughton about one person's recent trip:

Seattle mental health professional Cindy Black has traveled the world and says the border she most dreads is the one with our neighbor to the north.

Black travels and often sleeps in her van. A Canadian border guard became convinced a few years ago that the Seattle woman was not headed to Whistler to ski, but intended to take up residence illegally. Black was turned back at the border and her name added to a list.

Ever since, Black has been delayed for hours before being allowed into Canada. She carries a thick folder stuffed with proof of her life in Seattle: Utility receipts, phone bills, paycheck stubs. She's made her case often enough that the waits are getting shorter: On a trip to Whistler last month, Black only had to plead briefly before being allowed admission to Canada.

A border guard told her that the process of removing her name from the persona non grata list has started - but that it could take two years or longer.

Now Black might now find herself on a U.S. list. On the way home from Whistler, ICE delayed Black nearly two hours and searched her van after an officer spotted an eagle feather on the dashboard - a gift from a friend that Black has carried in plain sight for 15 years. The feather was confiscated.

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Olympic Outsiders

Tales from the U.S. Canada border

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