Busy year for border officials

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2011 (5096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s border patrol officers offered up their “key highlights for 2011” today, including nabbing dozens of counterfeit Winnipeg Jets jerseys, several child porn smugglers and 442 weapons.

The highlights did not include the bingo-playing grandma from Minnesota who was jailed in Winnipeg after being accused of smuggling a Mason jar of heroin in her minivan. It was later discovered to contain used motor oil.

Almost two million travellers entered Canada this year through 16 border crossings in 1.3 million vehicles, according to Lisa White, who issued the highlights on behalf of the Canada Border Services Agency.

White noted that flooding in April and May in Manitoba closed the crossing at Gretna and diverted many commercial trucks to Boissevain from Saskatchewan. “Many officers donated their time helping sandbag” during the flood,” White said. “They do it every year.”

The CBSA refused entry to more than 1,000 “foreign nationals,” deported 85 people and, according to White, bagged 1,200 doses of counterfeit Viagra.

The agency also donated thousands of dollars to local charities such as Child Find and Our Missing Children Society. “We’re always on the lookout for kids, for missing children,” White said, noting that five missing children had been recovered recently in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and reunited with their families.

Warroad, Minn. resident Janet Goodin, 66, made headline news last summer after she was arrested at the Manitoba border and accused of smuggling heroin. She was jailed in Winnipeg for almost two weeks before tests cleared her Mason jar.