La Frisko Lewis is an adventurer during the off seasons of academic study. A regular traveler - as often as allowable-affordable. He is a sophomore at University Wisconsin -Milwaukee, majoring in Business.
He just returned from 3 days (Thursday-Sunday) in Toronto, Canada.
We will share his travel and share information about the largest city in Canada.
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The trip started off with a border check on the USA side/Michigan (went by quickly), followed by a lengthy and strict Canadian Border Patrol check (30-40 minutes). The lengthy, strict and seemingly biased check appeared to be racially and age-motivated since he was the only African American. There was an African female but she was not delayed - others seem to go right through.
La Frisko felt that he was singled out due to his race, gender, dreadlock/hair style, color of skin and age.
His advice to others is to be sure you come with identification with your present address, proof of where you stay/live in the USA(i.e., utility bill, pay stub), address on ID must match supporting documentation, if you have parking tickets or any other violation in the system, be sure to have with you proof of compliance, have a roundtrip ticket to show planned departure; and, justify cash availability with time of stay. In other words, you will need to have funds to show that you can sustain your basic needs while visiting.
He was considered suspect by stereotypes, therefore he encountered an unnecessary delay which spoiled his trip.
"You will always have people who will profile you", said La Frisko.
"It happens all the time - not just there."
"I will be better prepared the next time and I will tell others so they will know before traveling."
The plan was to do a lot of foot travel during the day - sightseeing, and studying at night. Even though La Frisko did some sightseeing, it was much less than he had planned. Unfortunately, many of the online Google searches for places to see and go went un-obtained this time. However, he had an adventure, made the most of his visit, fulfilled some pre-thoughts, enjoyed seeing the various cultures and hearing the constant speaking of the French language. He did not sample the French cuisine - McDonald's took the break each day.
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Toronto is located on Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes. Its population is over 2.5 million - the 5th largest city in North America. Toronto is one of the top financial centers of the world. It is Canada's economic center - Toronto Stock Exchange and home of 5 of the largest Canadian banks. Canada is a member of the G-7 (United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan) - meeting of finance ministers from industrialized nations.
Toronto's leading economic sectors include finance, business services, telecommunications, aerospace, transportation, media, arts, film, music, television production, publishing, software production, medical research, education, tourism, engineering, and sports industries.
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We look forward to La Frisko's next trip.
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La Frisko is a member of Milwaukee Professionals Association Safety Matters Exploratory Team - college students with a focus on Leadership, Citizenship and Problem Solving.
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