Welcome to canada!

Expecting we will learn more about this in the near future... but the following is content of an e-mail that arrived tonight. Possibly too good to be true, but we are very hopeful that the many families who have had stop coming to Canada because a son, daughter, sibling, parent or grand parent had a moment of questionable judgement after having a few drinks; will now be allowed back.

RED HOT GOOD NEWS ALERT!!!!!!

Welcome to Canada!



It is my extreme pleasure to tell everyone that I was honoured last Friday to be invited to a conference call from the Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada who announced to us all privately that he signed into law last Friday, effective March 1st 2012, a new program for the border crossing issues involving minor misdemeanours.

This involves particularly, but not solely, DUI’s. These laws have now been relaxed making entry to Canada much easier with a one time minor offence.



He told us that anyone who is a single, one time offender of any misdemeanour including DUI, bar fights, assault, bad checks, etc. and who did not serve more than 6 months in jail will now be automatically allowed into Canada and not turned back with NO FEES required and they have also made the rehabilitation process much simpler, quicker and easy to fill out now too.



The Minister apologized to all of us in the tourism business and said it was never their intention for the law to go this far. They never meant for one time offenders, who made a single one time mistake sometime in their life, to not be permitted into Canada and he was changing this law to be effective right away, as of March 1st.



He explained that you can now fill out your rehabilitation forms as of March 1st at no cost and be automatically granted a one time pardon effective immediately March 1st, so you will not be stopped or turn back ever again for anyone with a one time offence.



If you do not fill out this form ahead of time then you simply get pulled over when attempting to cross and informed how to fill out the paperwork, but still allowed to cross over the border. If you never fill out the form it is our understanding that all that will happen is that you continue to get pulled over each time, so they can continue to explain what to do to get this erased from your record, but again you do not get denied entry for one time offenders and it does not make any difference if your offence was last week, last month or last year as there is no waiting time now at all to process rehabilitation like before when you had to wait 5 years for one time offenders, unless you had extenuating circumstances like a hit and run or manslaughter while DUI etc.



If you are a multiple offender and have more than one misdemeanour or DUI then it reverts back to the old law now currently on the books where you still have to wait 5 years from the date of your most recent conviction and then in this case you will have to pay the $200.00 fee and send in the rehabilitation forms after 5 years, which you will then be allowed to cross the border again.



I am so excited, I feel like we just won the lottery. The current rule has affected all Canadian tourism, coast to coast, in a devastating way and we have been fighting to change it for years. I was a huge outspoken advocate of changing this law and our Minister acknowledged this on the phone to everyone that he heard guys like Eric Brown loud and clear, which made me feel like a million bucks and very proud of my efforts to get this law changed now!



We will continue to send out more announcements as we learn more, as we were only on the phone with the Minister 30 minutes last Friday and he promised more details to follow after March 1st. We will be sure to send you the link to the Government of Canada website as soon as this information goes live on March 1st. The Minister wanted us to all hear the news from him personally to all those who fought so hard to have the old law changed! We wanted to pass this information on to you immediately, with the hopes that you start planning your 2012 Canadian fishing trip with Totem Resorts.



Have a great week everyone and YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned for more details on our March 1st Newsletter.



Eric Brown

President and Owner

Totem Resorts

807-226-5275