A long-running mass inner tube event in MI ended unexpectedly Sunday with a trip to Canada, with so many Americans blown across the maritime border by wind that Canadian officials had to set up a temporary screening area for the inadvertent immigrants.
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Sarnia Police say hundreds of people were assisted by several Canadian agencies after high winds caused problems for those involved in the Port Huron Float Down on the St. Clair River.
Sarnia Police, the Canadian Coast Guard on the Great Lakes and the Canadian Red Cross quickly came to the rescue, plucking people out of the water when their floatation devices deflated.
“They were unprepared to be stranded anywhere”, Staff Sgt. Scott Clarke told the Times Herald (http://bwne.ws/2bc8L3L ). “There were long waits and long lines”. “They were very upset, cold and miserable”.
The Americans were attempting to float down the river participating in a sport that we’re going to call Lazy Sailing.
“Those were the people we had our eye on, because they were just jumping in and saying, ‘I’m swimming back home, ‘” Garapick said.
“They were terrified of entering another country without documentation”, said Peter Garapick of the Coast Guard rescue team.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection boat helps floaters during the annual Port Huron Float Down on the St. Clair River in Port Huron, Mich.
The floaters were ferried by bus back to the USA after being greeted by Canadian police.
A Port Huron Float Down event Facebook page thanked our Canadian neighbors for the rescue.
A Facebook page for the event – which lists no organizers for the illegal parade – thanked Canadian authorities for demonstrating “true kindness and what it means to be fantastic neighbors!”
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Canada has a history of harsh immigration policies that are often derided as discriminatory- most notably the recent restrictive conditions imposed on Syrian refugees seeking asylum from a disastrous five-year war.
