I am only connecting in YUL, so am I going directly from the plane to US preclearance or do I need to clear Canadian inspection first? Is there a separate US preclearance line for Global Entry? I am not talking about using the card, but the kiosk (and much shorter line associated with it). I know how GE works, I am just curious if it will help expedite my relatively short connection in YUL. I have no idea what US preclearance is or how it works, and the descriptions online say nothing about GE.

In my limited experience, the immigration/customs agents in Canada (landside and airside) tend to be by far the worst of any country I have been to (~40) in terms of asking a lot of unnecessary and detailed questions, so I would be quite happy if I can avoid that on a tight int'l to USA connection.