Musical Border Crossing

[Marcellin Chiasson]

Mike (and other Cape Breton Music Lovers)
 
I was dumbfounded what the border crossing guards did to Mairi Rnkin and her driving companion. I know that tighter boarder regulations have become more strict since 9-11.
 
l think I may have found some of the reason why Mairi and her fiddle were turned back. I bet one of those guards overheard me play the fiddle at some Cape Breton venue and said "Hey, this instrumention could be dangerous to a person's health to have to listen to this", thus the tihtening on the reg's for the Cape Breton fiddle. Of course, Mairi would have taken some lessons roughly around the same time I did but she soon left me in her dust with her talents, her personalty and her abilities.. (Smile).
 
Seriously, I'll sign any petition in support of our outrage against this type of harassment against our pride and joy musicians.What law would she have broken to prevent such a wonderful talented person from crossing the border. Looks like some guard was on a power trip.
 
Macellin Chiasson.

--- On Fri, 2/13/09, Mike LITTLE <mike.little at ns.sympatico.ca> wrote:

From: Mike LITTLE <mike.little at ns.sympatico.ca>
Subject: Musical Border Crossing
To: cbmusic at locals.ca
Received: Friday, February 13, 2009, 11:09 PM

[this info is a blend of two sources]-Not Getting any better!!! worse!

Mairi Rankin concert at the Skye Theatre in Maine on Sunday was cancelled;
because she was refused admission at the border because of some stupid
paperwork irregularities. I think she was also playing at a few house concerts
too, which will now have to also be cancelled. What a crock! As the cancelled
concert shows, she surely wasn’t putting anyone else out of work—on the
contrary, two fine Maine musicians, Don and Cindy Roy, were also on the bill
with her at the Skye and they now won’t be paid either.
 Cultural exchanges should be privileged, not penalized!

 Mairi was interrogated by US guards at the border and turned back, and her
driving companion was banned for attempting to "smuggle an illegal
alien" into the country.

Musicians are regularly hassled at the border crossing by U.S. guards. 
Canadians welcome U.S. musicians but the US is not interested in Canadian
musicians.  Even Americans are harrassed when returning to the U.S., often
because the guards presume musicians might be smuggling drugs.

I'd like to contact our senators and congressman about returning the
musician visa process to pre-9/11 status--let me know if you would be interested
in signing on to a petition.

It used to take 30 days for musicians to get visas after the Canadian
musician's union verified that the applicant was a bonafide musician, and
musicians could adjust their itinerary to accommodate additional gigs.  Now it
takes 4 months to process a visa request (unless you pay a $1000 rush fee, which
doesn't always help), and musicians cannot alter their itinerary.  This, of
course, favors large entertainment companies which plan major tours far in
advance and have resources to process the paperwork.

Sorry to bother some of you about this, but enough people have asked that I
thought I'd send info to everyone, and save someone the trouble of showing
up at the cancelled events.

take care
Mike & Marg  www.cbchoices.com
mike.little at ns.sympatico.ca
cbchoices at gmail.com



On 24-Dec-08, at 12:11 PM, Will Richardson wrote:

A very Merry Christmas to everyone from down here in Texas.

Will Richardson
Allen, TX



-----Original Message-----
From: cbmusic-bounces at locals.ca [mailto:cbmusic-bounces at locals.ca] On Behalf
Of Mike LITTLE
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 5:50 AM
To: cbmusic at locals.ca
Subject: Re: universal season's greetings

And Season Greetings from the Western Side of Cape Breton Island


Mike & Marg  www.cbchoices.com
mike.little at ns.sympatico.ca



On 24-Dec-08, at 4:47 AM, marcello wrote:

I would like to spread my best whishes for a Merry Christmas and an
Happy
New Year
to all cbmusic friends!

Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo da Roma, Italia

Marcello


marcello.grillini at enea.it

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