Frost’s poem, rather than agreeing with the proposition that “good fences make good neighbors”, is actually challenging that notion, raising the possibility that fences may actually offend. Our government seems to have read the poem incorrectly, since, according to this report from the Canadian Broadcasting Company,

I’ve read most of the <expectorate>US Patriot Act</expectorate> but I don’t remember this part. Because of this provision, however, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Dennis Coderre says,

This, of course, feeds into the debate raging in Canada (and other countries, including the UK) over the implementation of a nationwide ID card. The Canadian Privacy Commissioner, George Radwanski, has railed against Minister Coderre’s introduction of ID card legislation, calling it a “huge blow” to privacy rights.

You might think that the rules would be different for good allies and good neighbors, but Attorney General John Ashcroft has said that “no country is exempt” from the new rules.

We’ve bombed Canadian servicemen in Afghanistan, introduced tariffs on their lumber industry, pressed for sanctions against their wheat farmers, and drenched their country in acid rain. We might as well build that wall.