Andy McKay

Jan 29, 2017

Crossing the border


If you work in IT in Canada then the chances are, you work with US companies. In fact for the majority of my career I have worked with US companies either full time, or as a contractor. Currently I work for Mozilla.

Over the years a key factor in my job has been the ability to travel to the US. Meetings, conferences and the so on are regular occurances in my career - meaning I travel to the US a couple of times a year. The majority of recruiting pings I get are from the big US tech companies who all require relocation to the US. A majority (not all) of career growth opportunities for me now are in the US, not Canada.

And now they are getting to the point where they might start checking cell phones and social media posts to vet incoming visitors. People who wanted to attend the Womens march were turned away.

I’ve been critical of the current US government on this blog and on Twitter and now it comes to a simple choice: will I keep quiet in the hope that I will still be able to cross the border at a future date? No. It might cost me, but this is worth fighting about.