I'm in no way disparaging our neighbors to the north, whom, as a country and as individuals, I have a great deal of respect.

But (you KNEW the "but" was coming)...

I've made 7 trips up & back to Ottawa from IAD between November and yesterday. Yesterday's trip was different because I had to fly to YUL and drive. I finally noticed a couple of really strange security and immigration practices, the likes of which the TSA and DHS do not even do:

1. In the customs and immigration area, the passport control people sitting behind the desks wear body armor! We're not talking about immigration & customs people working at the entrance to a Canadian Embassy in a really bad country in a really bad neighborhood. These people are inside secure areas in major internal Canadian airports where everyone arriving has been screened for weapons of some type???

2. During the departure ritual last night, I lost count when my boarding pass had been scanned for the 6th or 7th time, including after I had cleared U.S. Customs & Immigration and was about to walk through the doors to the gate area. Then, in the gate area, my name and about 10 other names were called to go to the departure gate for ANOTHER document check and BP scan. This doesn't even count the only BP scan that matters to anyone -- when you are actually boarding the airplane.

My boggled mind is crying out for a simple explanation