When an American man first set foot in Canada after paddling across the border in a kayak earlier this month, his first stop was none other than Tim Hortons, he says.
“I hit the sand, drugged my ‘yak up on the sand, geared up, went across the road to Timmies, had a cup of coffee [and] calmed down a little bit,” Dan Livers said Monday.
Livers, 51, made headlines two weeks ago when police in the town of LaSalle, Ont., said they found him at around 1 a.m. trying to illegally enter the country. They said they handed him over to federal authorities, but didn’t release his name, and it was unclear what happened to him after that.
Now, he’s in Windsor and telling his story.
Livers says he’s a U.S. Army veteran who was living in western Michigan before his recent trek across the Detroit River. He says he has claimed asylum in Canada with hopes of finding peace north of the border.
On Aug. 5, he set out from the Michigan shoreline in a kayak he says he got for $25, cutting across international shipping channels and landing about 12 kilometres south of the Ambassador Bridge.
Livers says that once he left Tim Hortons, he tried to declare himself at a nearby fire station, but staff told him they don’t handle that sort of thing. So he decided he would wait to run into local law enforcement.
He says that roughly six hours later, he came across a LaSalle police officer.
“About 1 in the morning, a patrolman was out doing his rounds and, you know, doing his job,” Livers said. “And lo there I was. He made contact with me and I turned myself into him.”
The force said the officer was “conducting commercial property checks” at the time.
Shortly before 1:00 a.m. today, a LaSalle police officer conducting commercial property checks in the 1800 block of Front Rd observed a man at the water’s edge with 2 backpacks and kayak that was attempting to illegally enter Canada. <br>Details here: <a href=”https://t.co/UrP89QA1hf”>https://t.co/UrP89QA1hf</a> <a href=”https://t.co/FdqTOavsZ8″>pic.twitter.com/FdqTOavsZ8</a>
Later that day, LaSalle police said they had transferred him to the RCMP. The national police force, which is responsible for border security outside official ports of entry, confirmed Livers’ identity to CBC News.
The RCMP then brought Livers to Canadian border officials. The Canada Border Services Agency declined to comment on the specific case, citing privacy rules.
But Livers says he has applied for refugee protections and has been granted a temporary status in Canada. He says he fears for his life back home, and that that’s why he crossed in a kayak — not at an official border crossing.
“I remember East Germany when I was a kid,” he said. “Nobody came through Checkpoint Charlie and I wasn’t gonna run the gauntlet of ICE, sheriff’s department, state police, whomever.”
Livers says he fears retribution after criticizing a nonprofit group in Michigan that provides service dogs and works with the state government.
“It’s all true. All the nonsense you hear south of the border is true,” he said.
CBC News cannot verify Livers’s claims. In any case, it will be up to him to prove to Canadian authorities that he has a real fear of persecution or serious harm in the U.S. — and that he wouldn’t be safe anywhere in the country.
He’ll likely need to plead his case before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, an independent tribunal that decides whether asylum seekers can stay in the country long-term.
Eddie Kadri, a Windsor-based immigration lawyer, said regardless of the specifics of Livers’ claims, his chances of success are low.
“We have a fragile refugee system as it is, and it certainly wasn’t designed or meant to be used by American citizens seeking legal status in Canada,” Kadri said in an email. “Under Canadian law, the legal requirements to be met in order for a claimant to be found a refugee or a person in need of protection is one that would be quite difficult for an American citizen to meet, if not impossible.”
Either way, Livers could be waiting months or even years for a decision on his asylum claim. The federal government is working through a backlog of cases.
For now, he’s staying at the Downtown Mission, a shelter in Windsor’s core, and says his experience in Canada has been great so far. He misses his dog, Orthos, and the friend who’s caring for him, though.
He knows getting refugee protection will be hard, but says he’s up for the challenge.
“I just don’t want to get killed and I hate looking over my shoulder,” he said. “I promise I’ll do everything I can to be a good Canadian and I will defend your border, I swear.”
