Motorists stranded in Canada after the nighttime closure of Canada Customs should contact the RCMP in Haines Junction, Y.T. if they need help, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Service Agency said this week.
The question arose when Haines summer resident Kerry McIver, a 29-year-old school teacher, became stranded at the Canada Customs station and was left taking shelter for the night in a parked trucker’s cab early June 4.
McIver said that due to a malfunctioning accelerator, her car ran out of gas in Canada about midway between Haines Junction and the U.S. border. Traveling alone, she hitched a ride with a truck driver and arrived at the Canada border station at 11:02 p.m., two minutes after Canada and U.S. customs stations close.
McIver said she saw a light on and knocked on a door at Canada Customs housing adjacent to the customs building. A border guard residing there allowed her to use his phone to call friends in Haines. McIver phoned to try to arrange a ride from a Haines friend, but the friend was unwilling to pass a lowered gate across the road at the nearby U.S. Customs station.
The guard – who McIver said seemed “mean” – also told McIver she “could go to jail” for crossing the border into the United States after hours, she said.
She said she then tried sleeping outside the customs station but became cold.
On foot with a light rain falling and “not wanting to go to jail,” McIver walked back along the highway to find the trucker and asked to spend the night in the cab of his truck. The border guard who allowed her to use his phone checked on McIver at the truck once during the night, at the urging of McIver’s friends in Haines.
But the guard also told McIver’s friends that he wouldn’t put McIver up for the night and that he wasn’t required to, McIver said.
Officials with the Canada Border Service Agency reiterated the latter point in interviews this week. Lisa Douglas, superintendent of the Canada Customs station, said she was not legally allowed to speak to the media.
Stefanie Wudel, a spokesperson for CBSA in Vancouver, B.C., who responded to the CVN’s inquiry about the incident, issued a statement that didn’t specifically address what McIver or others in a similar situation should do.
“Each case is assessed by the officer given the circumstances and situation presented at the time. There has never been a policy that states that border service officers must permit travelers to stay in an officer’s place of residence for travelers who arrive outside the hours of port operation,” Wudel wrote.
Wudel wrote that in emergencies, “both on and off-duty border service officers are committed to ensuring the safety of members of the public. The CBSA strives to treat the public with fairness, respect, and dignity, while also respecting the privacy of our employees during non-work hours.”
Wudel said “if a traveler is in distress, a BSO will ensure the individual is safe, and contact other local emergency response personnel if the situation warrants.”
Jennifer Bourque, another spokesperson for the agency, said McIver should have contacted local Canadian police. But in McIver’s case, that would have meant a late-night phone call to the RCMP office in Haines Junction, the closest settlement, more than 100 miles away.
A two-hour wait for help under those conditions would be “par for the course,” Bourque said. “That’s the kind of thing that happens in a small town.” The RCMP likely would have contacted police agencies in Haines to help a stranded person, she said.
“My understanding is that public safety situations like that would be addressed by local emergency responders,” Bourque said.
Marinka Darling, a retired superintendent of the Canada Customs station, said this week that she was “distressed” that McIver wasn’t offered at least a place in a garage or camper to spend the night there.
During her 30 years at the station, travelers needed help there as often as once a week for being either stuck, broken down or hungry, Darling said. “(McIver) would have been fed and safe and warm,” she said. “We did that for lots of people while we were there.”
Under such circumstances, help is at the discretion of officers, Darling said. “There’s always creative ways to apply the rules and still do the right thing. If you have any human compassion, it’s just common sense.”
Maybe after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Canada Customs officials are more concerned about the safety of their camp. “Things have changed a lot since I was there,” Darling said.