This is one of those questions that straddles GQ and IMHO, but since I suspect no factual answer is really possible, I’ll stick it here. It’s really more of a question-by-proxy for a friend of mine regarding his recent interaction with a Canadian Border Guard.
Backstory: My friend lives and works in CA, but has a “retirement home” in the Blaine area of Washington state, near the Canadian border. He heads up there a few times a year for vacations and the occasional short maintenance trip. He has also been a mild Canada-phile for a lot of his adult life ( which partly influenced his decision to buy a home near the border ) and enjoys visiting from time to time when he is in the area. In all his innumerable border crossings he has never once been harassed by Canadian Customs. Until this last trip.
However, about 18 years ago when he was in his late 20’s, he had been engaged to a Canadian citizen. During this period he had spent months at a time in Toronto and had made an attempt to gain Canadian citizenship for himself. On being turned down, he ( being rather more intemperate in his youth than he is now ) had mouthed off to the Canadian consulate that he would just circumvent the law and move there illegally. Needless to say the response to this pronouncement was a bit chilly.
Flash forward to this month when he was on vacation at his home around the 4th with his wife ( different woman from the above and an American citizen ). One night they decided to head over to Surrey for dinner and at the border, for the first time ever in years of making this trip, he got a fairly extensive and sceptical grilling ( and some searching in the wheelwells of his vehicle ). That was odd enough, but my friend was struck by the line of questioning, the very first of which was: “Have you ever lived in Canada?” My friend with his American passport and CA plates thought this was more than a little odd, especially since the line of questioning continued down the line of the personal, probing his connections to Canada. This in an area where Canadian money is feely exchanged for American in American stores and citizens stream back and forth across the border ( and own property on both sides ) with great regularity.
Question: So my friend was curious - was this simply an entirely random check? Has Canada suddenly tightened up on the border a great deal? Just the foibles of an individual guard? A standard line of generalized patter designed to elicit some response?
Or is it remotely possible that some clerk got around to typing in an old warning from two decades ago into a computer file and in this era of heightened security he has received a warning flag on his VISA?
I’m guessing it was just a random check. The SO and I just spent some time in North Dakota and on the way back the Customs Agent asked us some bizarre questions.
Where were you born? Do you live there now? Is your dog Canadian? What does your father do? Why were you in Winnipeg? Do your parents live in Winnipeg? Where was your mother born? Did you go to Cabalis? etc, etc.
He questioned us for about 10 minutes and every question seemed odd and nonsensical. I mean ‘Is your DOG Canadian?’?!?!?! WTF!?!?! I’m sure he had some sort of justification but everyone I came up with just sounds weak.
For them to have accessed a 20 yr old file and use it to question you, would require a level of efficiency that they simply do not possess. You are giving them way, WAY too much credit.
This would be my guess. In my experience, Canadian customs guards come in two flavours: nice and easygoing, or tough and out to get you. I’ve run the gamut from those who take my citizenship at my word and just wave me through after that one question, to those who ask many seemingly pointless or just plain strange questions before wanting to rip my car (or luggage, if I’m travelling by air) apart in the hope that they will find something I didn’t declare. One even wondered why the city stated on the dealer sticker on our car didn’t match the city we lived in. (Answer: It was my wife’s car, the out-of-town dealer was a personal friend of hers, and so she got a great deal on the car, though we did have to go to the other city to take delivery.)
Back in '83 or '84 my brother, I and a Christian Brother (almost sorta like a priest) decided to go skiing in Canada. We crossed over through northern Minnesota.
On the way back the Canadians stopped us, stripped everything from the car to include dismantling parts of the car, separated the three of us and individually interrogated us in separate interrogation rooms, then when they were done with us they said “get your car and go.” Took us almost an hour to put the car back together, and let me tell you, I was never gladder to be back in the US.
Yeah, they can get bored and decide to be total dicks even though you have no history in their fine, kindly land.
If you were returning to the States, you would have had that interaction with American border guards, not Canadians. Not that Canadians haven’t done stuff like that, but your memory is faulty on this one!
It certainly appears to me that they seem to be tightening up security wise at the Canadian border. My inlaws live in a small Canadian town that is about a 5 minute drive away from a small US border town. Whenever I am in the area I always pop over to fill up the tank with your cheap, cheap gas . It used to be a couple of older, slightly loopy Customs officers that would just wave you through. For about the last 5 months or so the officers have become younger, more official looking and much more likely to pull you over for a quick question/answer session while another goes through your trunk.
Seriously. We employ University students in temporary guard positions during the summer months to help cover for vacations. My BIL once worked there for a summer.
Anyway, I’ve had my share of U.S. Customs issues over the years, including removing panels from cars. It works both ways guys.
It actually makes some sense. If you have a totally slack-ass customs-and-border service, then people will quickly start smuggling like mad and doing bad stuff.
If you have a totally rigid inspect-and-strip everybody service, then you functionally have closed off the border.
If you randomly go off on people you manage to keep most of the border crossing moving, while still making people think that it isn’t worth the effort to smuggle, cause you just might get caught.
I had a similar experience last time I went to Montreal (fall of last year). The Canadian customs agent grilled us – “us” being my friend and I, two whitebread 23-year-old guys – on all manner of minutia about our everyday lives and the details of our identification. She just about had a cow when she found out we were planning to return to the US the same day; our explanation that we were coming from and returning to Plattsburgh (where I’d already told her I was born and had family) was met with a ten-second incredulous stare. After about ten minutes of this, we were determined not to be terrorists and permitted entry.
On the way back, the American interrogation, which we’d heard would be heinous, consisted in its entirety of the officer asking us if we’d hit up any strip clubs.
It was certainly a change from my teenage years, when I used to regularly pop up to Quebec for a day trip and get waved through both sides with a smile and a peek in the trunk. Hell, I’m only 24; I shouldn’t be talking about how much better things were back in my day…
In our last three years of taking trips to the US each year, we have noticed that customs do seem to be getting tighter each year. What we noticed this year was every vehicle coming into Canada from the US that was larger than a simple car was getting pulled aside for (we assumed) extensive searching. Our trunk was also searched for the first time (by the US dudes).
It’s not the individual guard. The guard who questions you intesnely will likely let the next ten cars through without a second thought. They get intense at random intervals in order to create an incentive for people to fear them.
They’ve tightened up a little bit in recent years, but not much. But if your number’s up, they’ll be very inquisitive indeed. And that’s certainly enough to convince ME not to smuggle anything.
I cross at the Peace Arch in Blaine (or more usually at the truck crossing) several times/year. And every so often, both the Canadian and US customs ask questions that are a bit odd. (I also always seem to pick the wrong line. Either the guard with a ton of questions or behind people who must be transporting tons of goods or money or have “unusual” citizenship/residence status. They don’t seem to be pulled over, they’re just at the station forever).
On the other hand - they are tightening up a bit more. And there are rumors of stories of old records coming up now that old records are being computerized and computer systems are finally being connected.
This happened to me when I first came to Seattle a few years back. I got hauled over, put under a light, placed in front of a video camera, and grilled for a good 45 minutes. I have nothing to hide and had done nothing wrong, and so they eventually let me through, but you never forget an experience like that! It was awful. I would say it was completely random.
I’d never had an experience like that before or since, and I grew up next to the US border, hopping back and forth regularly for short trips or holidays. They were always pretty neutral. However, I just yesterday came back to the US after visiting my parents in Canada. The customs officer was quite jovial and friendly with me, glanced at my Green Card and wished me a great trip. That was nice!
. It used to be a couple of older, slightly loopy Customs officers that would just wave you through. For about the last 5 months or so the officers have become younger, more official looking and much more likely to pull you over for a quick question/answer session while another goes through your trunk.
