Is it "policy" to be rude and unfriendly, as many FT members have noted?
Is it "policy" to be unwelcoming to Canadian citizens?
Is it "policy" to ask questions that have nothing to do with whether the person has any goods they should not, or is not a Canadian citizen?
I see. The USA, UK, France, Netherlands, Russia, etc. would be some of those?
Simon
Having gone through YYZ's US Immigration controls, I can tell you that they're pretty annoying people. The guy I had asked me if I worked for a living and where I worked.
CBSA members have to wear the vests. They have a militant union that pushes for such things as well as an employer that pushes officer safety.
Zedhead, if you had ever spent an 8-12 hour shift wearing a vest, you would then know that no one actually likes wearing them. They are hot, heavy and cumbersome.
Personally, I think the primary CBSA members look foolish wearing them in the arrivals are of an airport where the arriving people have all had close to cavity checks prior to arriving on their respective flights, however I also know they are not given the choice to wear the vest or not.
Like Simon I do not like the line of questioning that one endures when entering Canada as one's home country. I think some of the questions are too personal to most of us. However I also know the questioning is effective in outing certain people with certain things they shouldn't have. What I don't like is the perception given by CBSA that we are all bad until proven otherwise by our answers to the personal questions. A CBSA member has sweeping powers of search and seizure, far more than the police, they do not need "grounds", they are our frontline security protecting our borders.
Rather than blame the CBSA member you meet, one should blame the employer. It is the employer who is pushing the questioning line.
The US is reknowned (sp) for tough and miserable border people, I have found them to be nothing short of pleasantd and unintrusive. Why does CBSA management insist on being so much more personal and intrusive to it's fellow citizens, than it's southern neighbours, of whom we are guests.
Thank you CBSAguy for joining FT, you will be a great asset in answering many questions and clearing up misconceptions. You will need a mental kevlar vest to deflect much of the flak you will receive here.
Would the officer be able to claim compensation (if injured due to an injury where wearing a vest would have prevented injury) should the individual not have a vest on when the job requirement demands it be so?
Whether Canadian ,American or whoever,the people asking questions are going to have good and bad days.I have experienced all of them,it is part of the travel experience and I try to not take it peronally.
Overall, my CBSA experience is definitely on par with countries like UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and far better than the US. However, there are definitely fewer questions being asked at EU Schengen countries -- at least of those of us with Canadian passports. And no customs forms needed for EU!
Last time I checked, the UK was part of the EU. And an EU Member State national does not need to fill in that UK form.
But yes, no forms for the remaining EU Member States regardless of nationality.
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I don't think that any communicable disease (including the 2 mentioned above) can exist in a prepared meat product (dried, smoked, cooked, and possibly even raw). Avian influenza is spread via respiratory or fecal emissions from infected living animals. I can't see how someone bringing in a personal amount of a boxed or packaged meat product would be a threat or would contain a realistically communicable (and viable) pathogen.
It's not necessarily communicable diseases they are after. Other things can exist in prepared meat products (cooked or uncooked). At the end of the day, The government is interested in protecting Canada's agricultural and food supply chain system. http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/toce.shtml
In fact, I was impressed with NZ and Aussieland's "biosecurity" protection and the measures they take to protect their country from the entry of pests etc. that could destroy/disrupt their agricultural, food chain, forest, wildlife systems, etc.
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Originally Posted by Joe Airman
Besides simply asking if someone is leaving the country with more than $10K worth of financial instruments, are there other questions that you are legally entitled to ask? Such as the reason for your departure from Canada, your destination, your expected return date, etc?
Should be. What they ask you on the return could be asked on the outbound.
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Originally Posted by Joe Airman
Assuming that a Canadian Citizen is not in violation of the $10K rule, does CBS have the legal grounds to prevent the person from departing?
CBSA can prevent someone from leaving the country for a multitude of reasons. They are not limited to the 10k rule.
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Originally Posted by Joe Airman
I could be wrong, but I don't recall being asked about the $10k thing when entering or departing any European country. Do they not have a similar rule?
They have similar rules. It's just that they are not as transparent about it as some other countries that ask you to make the declaration on a piece of paper.
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Last time I checked, the UK was part of the EU. And an EU Member State national does not need to fill in that UK form.
It's part of EU, but not part of the Schengen zone (or Eurozone, or some other EU institutions). Coming in with a non-EU passport you will have an immigration check experience closer to the US (think 30-60 minute lineups) than the Schengen zone.
In fact, I was impressed with NZ and Aussieland's "biosecurity" protection and the measures they take to protect their country from the entry of pests etc. that could destroy/disrupt their agricultural, food chain, forest, wildlife systems, etc.
Yep -- Australian (though not NZ) customs will X-ray your luggage when looking for food and wood products. Singapore, incidentally, does the same thing.
Yep -- Australian (though not NZ) customs will X-ray your luggage when looking for food and wood products. Singapore, incidentally, does the same thing.
NZ x-rays as well. I just went through that a few weeks ago at AKL. Every bag was scanned and while my hiking boots had already been cleaned and approved by one of his fellow Kiwi agents, because that agent had left for lunch and no one could vouch for me, I had to do it all over again.
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It's part of EU, but not part of the Schengen zone (or Eurozone, or some other EU institutions). Coming in with a non-EU passport you will have an immigration check experience closer to the US (think 30-60 minute lineups) than the Schengen zone.
Schengen. Not Eurozone. Eurozone is for currency.
But even before entering the Schengen Zone (at least for the recent eastie states), none of them had a form for non-EU Member State nationals to complete when entering their country by air. So Schengen was not the determining factor of whether you had to complete a form or not. It's an individual Member State thing.
I can't remember if IRL requires a completed form for non-EU nationals.
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That's fine. That's up to you. But then I can only conclude that either your statement is a bunch of bullocks, or you did something to piss CBSA off and they decided to throw the book at you.
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to not take it peronally.
