Officials in Sarnia, Ontario were surprised last night to find approximately 1,500 Americans illegally floating into Canada.
They were participating in the annual Port Huron Float Down, during which people simply float down the river on rafts, inner tubes and other flotation devices from Port Huron, Mich.
High winds pushed them to a number of points along the Canadian shore. They had to be rescued by Sarnia police, the OPP, the Canadian Coast Guard, Canada Border Service Agency and employees from a nearby chemical company Lanxess Canada.
Likely story. Probably a bunch of Justin Trudeau fans trying to get a glimpse.
"God bless Canada!" shouts one floater.
"Thank you, Canada!" yells another.
"There were people in places you'd never think something would float, but there were Americans everywhere," Peter Garapick of the Canadian Coast Guard said. "There was no chance for anything floating or people on inner tubes to go anywhere but Canada."
The Americans were rescued and then sent back, in a humane fashion, from whence they came. Some paranoid Americans tried to swim back to America for fear of illegal immigration repercussions but were thankfully rescued by Canadian Coast Guard rescuers before they got themselves hurt.
On the shore, passersby were giving their shirts off their backs to get people warm.
The last bus left Sarnia at about 7:30 p.m., after people were picked up at a local gravel pit.
We have a statue with a really nice poem on the bottom of it that the Canadians might want—we don’t seem to be using it.
You can go for more discussion over at Northwatch’s diary here.