Detained, strip-searched, thrown in a cell, local travellers allege mistreatment at Pearson
BY GLORIA J. KATCH Special to the VOICE
After being detained, strip-searched, handcuffed, and thrown in a cell for several hours at Pearson International Airport last Thursday night, "brutal" and "traumatized" are the two words Jeff and Sherry Taylor angrily repeated in describing their daughter's recent experience returning from spring vacation in Jamaica.
The Pelham residents find the entire incident "mind- boggling" and believe their 22-year-old daughter, Samantha and her friend, Daniella Nettos, 23, were both victims of profiling. Neither of the two young women have a criminal record, or any previous involvement with drugs or smuggling.
Jeff Taylor said the question they have is why.
"What was their evidence to go to such lengths?"
His understanding of the law is that authorities are required to have "reasonable cause" to make an arrest.
When the girls placed their passports on the automated scanner at the airport Thursday night, they were expecting to get through the lineup quickly, since they had nothing to declare. They were happy their flight landed at about 10:30 PM, a little earlier than expected. But the customs officer ticked her papers with a "red ‘x’," and before they knew it, the young women were separated by different officers and taken away.
Then came the constant questions—why they were away, who they visited, and how did they earn their money. Despite finding no evidence of wrongdoing after rummaging through their luggage, and chemically testing their bags for drug residue, the women asserted that the customs officers relentlessly continued to badger and detain them.
"She was so freaking scared and intimidated," said Sherry Taylor, Samantha's mother, in speaking to the Voice the following day.
"Every time she starts talking about it, she starts crying. It's humiliating.”
While her daughter has a few tattoos, she doesn't have any eye or face piercings, and doesn't have anything outstanding in appearance to treat her like a criminal, said Mrs. Taylor.
"They said she was in a gang. It's discriminating. [This experience] is going to haunt her for awhile," she said.
But the Taylors believe the incident needs to be reported, so people will know their legal rights and know what can be expected at customs.
On Saturday, Samantha, with the encouragement of her father, was able to pull herself together and talk to the Voice directly. To Samantha and Daniella, the misunderstanding lies in the fact that Samantha and Daniella went to Jamaica a few weeks ago. A previous trip to Jamaica was with the Nettos' family, including Daniella's parents and grandmother, as Daniella has a relative and friends there. However, last week the girls decided to take a vacation on their own. The customs officers were concerned about why they had taken two trips to Jamaica in such a short period of time. They asked who they knew, who they met with, and what they did on their vacation every day.
Samantha said that customs took pictures of her passport and other identification, and she's worried she's been "flagged," which may mean she will have problems travelling in future. They took pictures of the tattoos on her hand, and said she must be in a gang.
"They asked who I was working for.”
Similarly, somewhere on the other side of the airport, Daniella was receiving the same treatment. The two were not allowed to talk to each other. Samantha said she was not allowed to call her father, who she had informed earlier she was on her way to claim her baggage. She was upset, as she knew her father would be worried and waiting for them.
Soon after, her cellphone became a big issue. It was confiscated, and when customs officials asked to go through it, Samantha denied them permission. However, she asked them to call her father, and they wouldn't.
"They said I was probably trying to call my drug dealer."
Apparently, during this time, Jeff Taylor was trying to call Samantha to no avail. When someone did eventually answer her phone, Taylor asserted that the customs officer said his daughter was being detained, but wouldn't give him any further details. Taylor wandered around the airport waiting. It wasn't until about 3 AM that an officer finally said his daughter could be there all night, so Taylor left, have to get some sleep before work the next morning. However, he was upset that customs officials intentionally wouldn't even give Samantha his message.
When officials asked permission to view both Samantha’s and Daniella's phones, initially they declined, because they felt it was illegal, an invasion of their privacy.
This prompted officers to inform Samantha she was under arrest, because she was being "uncooperative.” She was handcuffed and walked through the airport to a cell area down the hall. Daniella had the same thing happen to her, although they were taken to different cells. Walking through the airport handcuffed and escorted by customs officers, while people stared as they went by, was "humiliating," Daniella said. It was the longest three minutes of their lives.
When Samantha requested an attorney, customs officials called someone they said was from legal aid, and let her speak with a woman. The woman gave Samantha only her first name, but told her to cooperate with customs. So Samantha allowed officers to go through her phone. She said that she could barely see through a small window in the cell door.
"I could hear them laughing outside, as they went through my phone, like it was entertainment."
By this time, Daniella was already told to strip down, and squat so they could perform a cavity search, and to lay on a bed and spread her legs.
Then customs officers brought her all kinds of food and coffee, so she could defecate and purge the contraband they alleged she had inside her stomach. Daniella said every time she had to urinate she was taken to a toilet in this "gated area," while two officers watched her in the act. She was required to hover over the toilet, so they could see if any drugs dropped out. She also wasn't allowed to dispose of the toilet paper in the bowl, and had to show it to officers after wiping herself.
Even when Daniella had a bowel movement, and they didn't find any evidence of drugs, a customs officer still wasn’t convinced, telling Daniella that her bowels were not completely void yet, and she had to defecate once more, before they would allow her to go home. When Daniella protested, she says she was told that under the law she could be detained for up to three days.
"They kept telling us we were going to die of poison, if we didn't poop out ‘the balloons,’" she said.
Daniella told the customs officer she has two children, and she would never think to carry cocaine in her stomach. The customs officer told her "people bring lots of blow back from Jamaica that way." Samantha said she told the customs officer they were racists for the way they viewed Jamaicans.
Meanwhile, Samantha was having difficulty going to the washroom. She asked for a stool softener, but the request was declined, with officers saying it would break a balloon. Samantha was lying in her cell handcuffed to a cot without a pillow and trying to sleep. She said custom's officers would come in every ten minutes, and tell her she wasn't allowed to sleep.
"They kept telling us we were going to die. I was bawling my eyes out. I didn't care. I told them, 'Would I keep trying to sleep, if I had drugs in me?'"
Daniella was released at about 5 AM., and didn't return to her home in Niagara Falls until later that morning.
Samantha was detained longer. When she was cleared to leave, she asked the customs officers, "Now what are you going to do for us, now that we're innocent?"
"You're free to go," flippantly replied the officer.
On her way out, Samantha said she was going to sue them. The pair still can't believe they didn't receive any kind of apology, or empathy after the terrible experience customs put them through. In retrospect, Daniella noted the accusations custom's officials made were "crazy" and horrendous.
"They think they can get away with anything."
"This just blew me away," said Jeff Taylor.
"I can't believe someone born in Canada could be subjected to this."
He finds it unfathomable that anyone could be "randomly picked out" and mistreated. He thinks they were singled out because they were two young, “impressionable girls,” who could be taken advantage of.
Taylor plans to file a complaint with customs, and is looking at different options, including possibly taking legal action. He views this incident as "a violation of their human rights," and believes it's worth pursuing.
Daniella and Samantha said because the event was so traumatizing, they barely remember the names of the custom's officers involved, as they dealt with about eight different people. Taylor reminded Samantha to keep a file and a paper trail, as different people handled the case. A response from customs can take up to 39 days, he said, after reading some information online. Currently, Samantha and Daniella don't want to be reminded of the event.
"I don't have any memories of my trip. I just remember being handcuffed in jail," said Samantha.
Comment from the Canadian Border Services Agency was not forthcoming until after this week's edition of the paper went to press. Late Monday, spokesperson Jayden Robertson wrote in an email, “In accordance with the Privacy Act it is not the practice of the CBSA to speak to the interactions it may or may not have had with a specific individual."
Robertson added that all travellers seeking entry to Canada, including Canadian citizens, may be subject to in-depth exams. "Secondary inspections are a part of the normal cross-border travel process and border services officers are trained to perform these examinations in a courteous, respectful and professional manner."
