Unnecessary security on the US-Canada border?

My last column in April was on the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary causing a ruckus up north:

TORONTO — Desidero Fortunato is a Canadian citizen who regularly visits his second home in Blaine, Wash., crossing the border by car two or three times a week.

Last month, a U.S. border guard — who apparently had no cause for suspicion — ordered him to shut off his engine and get out of the car.

The Canadian penchant for politeness can, admittedly, be irritating. But the 54-year-old competitive dancer got more than he bargained for when he asked the guard to say, "please." First came a blast of pepper spray in the face. Then a handful of guards threw him to the ground, pinned him with their knees and slapped on handcuffs.

Fortunato says the tense interrogation that followed eased only when the guards learned he was born in Portugal.

“Their shields dropped slightly down. It was like you know: ‘OK, he's a westerner, OK, he's not a Muslim, okay, he's a Christian — he's one of us.’ That's what I read,” he told a newspaper.

Fortunato was let go, and the latest reports had U.S. officials investigating the use of force against him.

The thought of U.S. border guards on the lookout for politeness-wielding terrorists sounds like fodder for "Saturday Night Live." But with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as the guards' boss, Canadians are beginning to think anything is possible. ...

For more on the ruckus, read on.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/general/091117/unnecessary-security-the-us-canada-border