After kayaking across the Detroit River earlier this month, an American asylum-seeker stepped into Canada unsure of what to expect, but considers the reaction so far positive – including a stranger giving him $100.

“I hate the fact that I did what I did, but what was my choice? I was scared,” said Dan Livers, 51, of Michigan. “I hope to become a citizen.

“I would love to Stay in Canada.”

Livers told the Star that he set out from Michigan on Aug. 5, in a kayak he bought for $25 on Facebook Marketplace, paddled across the international border and landed at a spot in the Town of LaSalle, about 12 kilometres south of the Ambassador Bridge.

“It was a ‘junker,’ but hey, it was only going to make one trip,” Livers said of the kayak, adding he had made a prior scouting trip to check potential

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