papers please

Before 9/11 they would wave in the CBC News vans at the Detroit border. We often crossed to cover stories. One day, post 9/11, I was with a TV crew, and we were stopped at the US border. No big deal. Our ID was okayed at immigration but then “your next step is customs.” “What?” It turns out they wanted an account of all the gear in the van. “Where’s your ‘carnet’?” None of us knew what that was. Nobody had ever been asked. We turned back to Canada missing our story. After that, every CBC van in Windsor had a carnet to show at the border. This isn’t only a 9/11 story; this is a vaccine passport story. We didn’t need one before. We do now, so it’s time to have one.