As part of its latest budget request, the US Department of Homeland Security has asked Congress to fund a study of the “feasibility” of charging “user fees” for the cost of “security screening” for people crossing the land border between the USA and Canada.

As is often the case with issues related to USA-Canada relations, the DHS proposal was barely deemed newsworthy in most of the USA, but generated front-page stories and instant outrage from Vancouver to Toronto and throughout Canada.

Since this is a budgetary proposal, it needs approval from the US Congress. Tell your Representative and Senators that people who travel to and from Canada aren’t “using a service”. We are exercising our right to travel, to leave our country, and to return. We shouldn’t have to pay fees for required travel documents or for being searched and interrogated by agents of either country’s government.