[transcriptase]

The specifics are seemingly irrelevant to everyone. She had her work visa revoked at the Canadian border because her company in California was allegedly making THC beverages in violation of federal law. She was told to visit a consulate to straighten it out.

Instead she flew to Mexico and tried to enter there with new and obviously fake job offer. She was treated like anyone else would, but it’s international news because she’s a pretty white woman.

[BizarreByte]

Again I do not care. The US has done more than enough to instill fear in Canadians like me.

Would you travel to a country where its leader is constantly making threats against your country, some as serious as repeatedly calling for your annexation? The current US administration has made it very clear how it feels about me and my countrymen.

I don't consider the US safe and I do not need someone to americansplain to me. You aren't exceptional, you're a threat.

[transcriptase]

I am Canadian. I’ve been to the U.S. a hundred times and nothing has really changed to make me blink at continuing to go. I have friends and family who work and vacation there, and it’s the same for them as it’s always been.

The Canadian media and Canadian businesses have been drumming up fear and patriotic rhetoric to drive domestic industries. That’s great - the last 10 years of “Canada is a post-national state with no culture or identity” narrative that Trudeau championed wasn’t doing us any favours anyway.

Trump may be a buffoon and what he’s doing is clearly not acceptable with respect to Canada, but to fear visiting or considering the U.S. unsafe when it’s objectively far safer than visiting any all-inclusive hotspot in the Caribbean that Canadians are still flocking to like they do every winter is, well, removed from reality.

[jszymborski]

> nothing has really changed to make me blink

Then you perhaps aren't looking closely. The US is undergoing one of the fastest democratic backslides (democratic sinkhole?) the world has yet to see [0], deportations and detentions are happening with zero regard to the rule of law [1], and our _sovereignty_ is under attack daily.

If that doesn't make you blink, like most Canadians have [2], then perhaps nothing would.

[0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-democracy-report-1.74863...

[1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-admin-ignores-judges-order-b...

[2] https://www.ctvnews.ca/video/2025/03/18/ctv-national-news-ho...

[account42]

You might want to try getting out of your doom news bubble.

[BizarreByte]

> I’ve been to the U.S. a hundred times and nothing has really changed to make me blink at continuing to go.

Let's hope you never get unlucky, it only takes one border agent having a bad day after all. I've been to the US many, many times and as I said I no longer consider it safe, but we all have different risk tolerance levels.

> when it’s objectively far safer than visiting any all-inclusive hotspot in the Caribbean

I don't visit those places either.

Cry to someone else about how it's all media based fear while ignoring the very real changes in attitudes, policy, and atmosphere, but I personally see no reason to take the risk when I could...just stay in Canada and be safe.

[metabagel]

Dude, if you have a tattoo that looks questionable, you literally could be deported to a concentration camp in El Salvador. Granted, maybe you are white, and that might be the one thing which saves you.

[wahnfrieden]

Reportedly even having an LGBT tattoo was sufficient to be marked as criminal and sent to the El Salvador concentration camp

[somedude895]

You're saying that you're not actually interested in discussing the post you're commenting on, you just want to use the comment section to rant. Got it.

[jszymborski]

No, they are saying that the minutiae doesn't impact their desire to not visit, as simply the threat of arbitrary incarceration is sufficient. It's in fact a sentiment shared by most Canadians if the sharp decrease of Canadian visits to the US approaching pandemic levels is anything to go by.

[apwell23]

its not up to you to decide what rules are "minutiae".

Thats the attitude of drivers towards laws on streets of bangalore.

[SpicyLemonZest]

It's international news because she was detained for 2 weeks with no explanation. If they had simply booted her back across the border - which I thought was the default in cases like this, where someone's applying in an orderly manner at a port of entry - few people would have cared.

[hattmall]

>If they had simply booted her back across the border

They can't. And this is entirely her fault for trying to enter through Mexico. Telling them she will return to Canada isn't helpful because what are they supposed to do? Tell her ok, go get an Uber to the Airport and just let her go? Mexico would not issue her a VISA either so her only option is US or Mexican Detention. When the agent said "You aren't a criminal" is when she saw that Mexico had denied her re-entry and she was flagged for detention.

Now, I mean, personally I think it would be fine to just let her go because who really cares, but the point of rules/laws/procedures is for them to be followed.

Why did she go to Mexico first? Because she was denied entry in Canada and thought there would be less scrutiny at the Southern Border for Canadians. She was correct, because it worked the first time when she would have likely been denied at the Canadian border for her second crossing, but her initial denial flagged her.

I feel for her, and the situation sucks, but she 100% knows she's trying to game the system, and that's not even bringing up the issues of her self-sponsored TN visa which is dubious.

[SpicyLemonZest]

Is it true that Mexico denied her re-entry? The source article doesn't say anything about that, and I'm not sure why it would happen - Canadian nationals generally have visa-free entry for short trips to Mexico.

[hattmall]

Yes, the agent saying "We have to send you back to Canada" is because she wasn't allowed in Mexico. By default her tourist card would have only covered entry from from Canada. The first CBP agent almost certainly attempted to get her back into Mexico which is why it took "hours." If she already had a valid VISA for Mexico then the default would be to return her. The article doesn't even really make it clear that she flew to Mexico first and then tried to enter the US. To the uninformed it would seem she may have flown into San Diego or something. She wouldn't be able to return to Mexico on an asylum claim either of course.

[footy]

Canadians don't need a visa to travel to Mexico though [1], assuming they won't be doing any work or studying. Going to the airport to go back to Canada is not work.

[1] https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/mexico

[hattmall]

Yes, but if she HAD a VISA she would have been allowed to return to Mexico. She entered Mexico with a Temporary Tourist Card for entry from Canada to exit through the US with specified dates or less than 72 hours. That card became invalid when she left Mexico. The border agents most certainly tried to get her back into Mexico, but "denied entry into the US" is going to cause a manual administrative review in Mexico and that appears to have been denied. The only thing different under Biden / Obama would have been that she may have been processed faster because their was less backlog.

She gambled on trying to to game the immigration system and lost. It sucks but 12 days in custody isn't world ending. The most amazing part to me is people with no experience with "the system" find themselves incarcerated and think not eating sounds like a good idea.

[apwell23]

Yep this person clearly tried to manipulate the system and had the gall to admit that in public because she knew some many ppl wouldn't care and would support her regardless. this comment thread is proof of that.

[causal]

Disingenuous take, did you even read the article?

1) She was not detained in connection with any crime whatsoever. At no point was her company's use of THC stated as a reason for detainment.

2) You have invented the idea that her second job was fake. If it were, then fraud could have been a crime and reason for detainment- but again, the article makes it clear no crime was charged or cited.

3) You are right that plenty of non-white people are also going through this. I wish that was also enough to motivate people to care.

The point is that removing due process for anyone is a threat to everyone. It could be you next. You might think, "Not if I'm a citizen and not a criminal" - but the whole point of due process is getting the opportunity to prove that you are in fact a citizen and not a criminal. That right is eroding.

[apwell23]

  After a long interrogation, the officer told me it seemed “shady” and that my visa hadn’t been properly processed. He claimed I also couldn’t work for a company in the US that made use of hemp – one of the beverage ingredients. 

i don't know what hemp is or how is related to THC.

[projectazorian]

Hemp is a lower THC variant of cannabis that has a variety of non-psychoactive uses. It was legalized in the US in 2018.

[beart]

Hemp is a type of cannabis. Historically in the US, it contained extremely small amounts of THC. With the legalization/decriminalization of THC across many states, I don't know if that's still true.

[zabzonk]

Hemp and cannabis are both varieties of the plant Cannabis sativa. Hemp contains less THC, and is used for things like making rope.

[JKCalhoun]

Hemp is used to make rope.

[mahkeiro]

Yes because more cases are happening everyday: https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/03/19/etat...

[tiniuclx]

What about the new job offer makes you think it is fake?

[transcriptase]

You run a company in LA. Your visa is revoked. You show up at a different border shortly after with a novel job offer. Is it a genuine job offer or are you going back to run your company?

[jmb99]

If that is all the evidence presented, then under the wild new concept of “innocent until proven guilty,” yes it is.

[troad]

That's never been the standard at the border.

The starting assumption when crossing any[0] international border is that you don't have a right to enter the country, until you prove otherwise.

People from wealthy Western countries are generally used to just waving their passports and passing through, but that is not nor has it ever been some kind of automatic right. People are questioned and denied entry all the time, should they fail to satisfy the border official of their eligibility for entry under the exact terms of their visa (or the relevant visa waiver program).

I'm very sympathetic to the idea that border officials should have less discretion to deny people entry without very solid reasons, but if you start talking about 'innocent until proven guilty' at a border today, you're not going to have a good time.

[0] International agreements can of course modify this default assumption, e.g. Schengen.

[apwell23]

ppl here are so freaking annoying and ignorant about how immigration works in any country.

you are right, for immigration its your responsibility to prove that you are not coming in to violate terms of entry. Onus is not them to prove that you are coming to work on tourist visa.

[yencabulator]

She expected to buy a return flight back to Canada, but was instead imprisoned.

[slekker]

Can you share the part of the article where this is mentioned or a source?

[apwell23]

"stayed in Canada for the next few months, and was eventually offered a similar position with a different health and wellness brand."

When i google "holy water" first few links for me are some sort of THC infused liquid. But i think this person was working for one without thc?

[foogazi]

> She was treated like anyone else would

How is it OK to treat everyone like that ?

[seec]

Exactly. From her own story you can also infer that pretty much everyone who was detained with her was in fact illegal. Nobody cares about them because they don't have the reach of this white woman; not that anyone would care, because they can't make up a bullshit story to pretend that they got unfairly detained.

It may not seem right, but enforcing laws is kind of the point of having borders and cops and things like that. I'm amazed how many people are complaining.

This woman is clearly shady and got what she deserved and that's that.

[diebeforei485]

Hemp is not THC. And hemp was legalized in 2019 federally.

[apwell23]

only if thc content is below a certain %

[jmpz]

Source?