Originally Posted by Sanosuke
First off I'll point out why Canada Customs and EU customs work differently.
a) You stated that you entered the EU on your EU passport. The response you got from the inspector was precisely the response you got for using your EU passport. They rarely look at the passports for EU passport holders from what I've been told.
b) You may be welcomed home upon entry to the EU, but you can't expect the same from Canada, since it may be a former British commonwealth, and it can't be expected to say "welcome home, have a fun trip home," to everyone that enters Canada on a Canadian Passport. (Remember our country isn't one nationality, but MANY nationalities in essence, if you haven't forgotten that one.)
Uh ok. So your logic is:
You should be expected to be welcomed into the UK because you have a UK passport.
You should not be expected to be welcomed into Canada because you have a Canadian passport and lots of people emigrated here.
So it is natural that Canadian BSOs ask inane questions because we are a multicultural country.
Originally Posted by sanosuke
How is it that you purport to speak on behalf of "most of us" ?
Shouldn't it be clear? Its called objectivity, Simon.
Uh ok. So your logic is:
"I'm being objective (according to me) and so pretty much everyone else agrees with me, because it only makes sense."
Once again, your attitude towards the officer will dicate the attitude you receive from that officer when you approach them. Its called courtsey and one shouldn't have to tread on the officer's toes each time they approach the officer.
Nonsense. "Should", not "will". Perhaps you haven't read the myriad of posts from other FT members who have the exact same experience as me. We didn't all approach the customs booth with red faces and spitting fire. We get pissed off when asked questions that have ZERO to do with (a) establishing Canadian citizenship and (b) determining what our customs declaration is/should be.
If you hold something back, then thats the reaction you will get -- indimination in the form of more questioning. So why are you being a stone wall when they request to look at your stuff even if it may not be something they are interested in reading about. Its nice to know that you with other posters are resisting customs' efforts to be professional and goodwilling to the public, precisely the effect of fear they want from the travelling public who will end up refusing to submit to searches and thus getting arrested/jailed for it. Is that what you want, Simon?
I'm truly not going to bother to respond to this type of argument as it is either purposely obtuse or very naiive.
On the one hand, customs is making "efforts to be professional and goodwilling [sic] to the public" and on the other this generates "precisely the effect of fear they want." :-:
I HAVEN'T SAID I'M BEING A STONE WALL. I RESENT THE QUESTIONS. THEY HAVE NO REASON TO BE DOING WHAT THEY ARE DOING. I DON'T TELL THEM TO GET STUFFED.
Perhaps we should support the establishment of a dictatorship with secret police, and that would be ok, so long as we're nice to the officers.