Yet another reason to stay home

[ltmurnau]

BC Ferries to screen passengers

This is bloody ridiculous. What are they going to screen passengers for? Will I have to leave my nail clippers at home when I want to visit my dad on Pender Island?

Even in the crazy days after 9/11, when the commuter ferries from Bainbridge and Vashon Island to Seattle had an actual armed escort of Coast Guard cutters, Washington State Ferries never did this.

Ordinarily I'd suspect it's just a plot to keep people in the terminal a bit longer, so they can watch the giant TV and buy the overpriced coffee and trinkets. But this is just one for Stupid Security.

Comments

[nocturnalmuse.livejournal.com]

Anton pointed this article out to me yesterday and we had a heated (read both of us ranting), ALL CAPS discussion about it via IMs.

I completely don't understand why they are searching passengers going from Canada to Canada. What sense does this make? I followed the link from the article to Transport Canada's website, and it seems to have something to do with various concerns, including people hijacking the boat, forcing it to crash, etc. Has this ever been a concern in the history of BC Ferries? Does Transport Canada realize they're putting a massive damper on the lives of everyone choosing to live on this island?

As if the trip via ferry from Victoria to Vancouver wasn't long enough.

[espressoman.livejournal.com]

I can still walk down to the inner harbor in Victoria and get on a seaplane with no fuss, no searches and no bullshit and
be in Vancouver within 25 minutes.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, and I'm sure many people can. I can't however. And I reckon there are probably a few other people on this island that can't either.

Not many people would take the ferries more than once for fun, before they would opt to take Harbour Air; the difference in travel times is pretty extreme.

[espressoman.livejournal.com]

In 100 trips to Vancouver in the last 20 years, 90 of them have been VIA B.C. Ferries.
Nowadays, I make a reservation (which is obscene) -- I pay
extra for the privilege of AT LEAST getting on one of these
rust buckets and am not credited for it [like you are in Europe...]

It is just like Gas prices on Vancouver Island (don't get me started...)

They have us by the pony-tails...
Life on the Island

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

Watch THAT change in a big hurry!

[espressoman.livejournal.com]

I am not so sure -- 9/11 was, like, 6 years ago...
and planes have been flying in and out of the Inner Harbor
and Coal Harbor, Vancouver non-stop since several days
after 9/11 -- and there have been few, if any, security threats
or alerts since then...

Like our draconian security certificates which, thankfully, had
a sunset clause... were NEVER used...
(apart from that Toronto round-up which is still unsettled...)

Can you imagine living in a country where you can be arrested
for "thinking" about doing something... even joking about it.
Yea - I know... you cannot make BOMB jokes on airplanes..
(I actually overheard a Doofus on an Air Canada connector making
a joke about a BOMB -- the flight attendant said: "I DID NOT HEAR
WHAT YOU JUST SAID!" )and you cannot RAZZ security officers or
border guards at border crossings - they simply have no sense of
humor.

My point being -- A just society is one that locks people up
AFTER they do stuff... not before.

[espressoman.livejournal.com]

"I completely don't understand why they are searching passengers going from Canada to Canada."

And WHY are we carrying PASSPORTS to travel within Canada?

You need 2 pieces of picture ID to get on a plane from
point A to B --
That means a DRIVERS LICENSE (if you have one...) and a P.P.
Bullshit.

Get used to the phrase "PAPERS PLEASE!" folks.
We are quickly moving towards a fascist-like state
not-unlike Nazi Germany where we need "papers" to
go anywhere by air or sea within our own borders.

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

Soviet Russia had "internal passports" as well.

We are coming to resemble the rest of the world, in that suspicion of the motives and movements of one's own citizenry and arbitrary police powers are the norm.

How odd to think that up until about the start of the First World War, passports generally did not exist. If you were rich enough to travel, you did not pose a threat and therefore did not need "papers".

[espressoman.livejournal.com]

I am optomistic - I think "The People" [that's us...]
will prevail.
We will say NO to oinks, dogs, rent-an-oinks, stuff-shirts,
politicians, war-mongers and the like.

YES to freedom.

Freedom, baby, yeaaaaaaaa!

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

You have complete freedom to stay at home, baby, yeaaaa...
I think that's what they really want; if no one moves around, there's no trouble.