I spoke at a SOOS meeting this last Spring, and heard all kinds of stories
about the return from France. Apparently it was a specific individual or
group in a single point-of-entry that was the issue. Folks entering through
other airports breezed through.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:_%Aef.16668$rO4.1099@trnddc05...
Since you are in Canada, this might be of interest:
http://www.bedfordorchids.com/cfia.htm

It is an article posted by the Canadian orchid vendor Bedford Orchids
describing the beaurocratic incompetence of Toronto officials dealing with
orchids legally imported into Canada after the World Orchid Conference
that
took place in Dijon, France in March 2005. While not precisely on illegal
orchid smuggling, this article is related in that it shows some of the
beaurocracy that can be in place to try to legally control orchid imports.

The article ends on the intriguing statement "I have now found out that
every single orchid plant declared in Toronto was detained. Every plant
smuggled in was not found. Is Judy Smith and her petty officious nature
CFIA
's new incentive to smuggle?" I assume that the author is just assuming
that
someone did smuggle in some orchids (?). Of course, the article is written
from one point of view, and you might want to double-check the facts if
you
can find other articles on this matter -- vendors who are interested in
imported orchids are not very objective observers of CITES enforcement
officials. :-)

In general you will probably find a lot of bias on this subject, and it
may
be difficult to sort out who is guilty/innocent, right/wrong,
just-enforcing-laws/obstructing-imports. I do not know whether Mr. Norris
for example was really guilty or innocent, what I do know is that a lot of
the posts to orchid groups on this subject were written by people who
sympathized with him -- was it because he was innocent? was it because
they
were his friends? was it because they in general think that CITES laws are
unreasonable (a lot of people who are into orchids believe that these laws
are quite stupid to begin with and then enforced incorrectly by officials
who do not know enough about orchids)? I do not know, but if I were
researching this subject, I would be very careful to double-check the
sources, and keep in mind that the authors of any info I read may be
biased -- this of course would apply to both sides, since those who
ardently
claimed that Mr. Norris was guilty may well have been his competitors or
people with a grudge or people who are strong supporters of CITES
regulations and wanted a conviction as a deterrent to orchid smuggling
(?).
As I said, I do not know the truth in the matter, but I know that many
people in the orchid communities feel very strongly about it.

Joanna

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey All!

Workinng on a Case Study of Illegal Orchid Smugglings for a school
project. Anyone have any first hand experiences with this? I would be
interested to hear anyones experiences in dealing with underground
Orchids. Confidentiality is assured. Would be up for either email
correspondence and/or a quick telephone chat.

I'm in Canada - but you could be wherever!
Drop me a line at fergusonwoods AT hotmail DOT com if you're
interested!

Thanks!