No I haven't crossed at those two specifically, but my point was there are probably hundreds of agents at YVR, with thousands of interactions per day. Even if only I have had never had a bad experience statistically then they can't all be jerks.

Which brings me to my "funny" logic. Which was basically, I have experienced no jerks at YVR, you have. The fact that I haven't means they aren't all jerks.

If your premise was some of them are jerks or even most of them are jerks, maybe your argument of whose anecdotal evidence is more valid would make sense. However this thread is labeled "Why is YVR immigration such jerks?", the simple fact is they aren't all jerks. Not to mention jerks is a relative term, your idea of jerk and mine could be wildly different. The last couple of them I encountered were quite nice actually.

I truly am sorry you have had bad experiences, but the notion that YVR immigration are jerks based solely on your experience is ludicrous. Perhaps a thread asking if anyone else has had similar experiences as you would be more fruitful then labeling an entire team of people as jerks.

I would certainly agree they have a certain seriousness to them that could be interpreted as jerk like. They are not there for customer service, that is clear. But if you treat them with respect that is all I have ever got in return.

I just tell them the truth. Which one time was that I was bringing my friends to try Poutine, probably the only time I have seen a border agent laugh. It was the God's honest truth too.

Given everything I've put that particular CBSA station through, I'd say they're nicer than the other Canadian border crossings I've experienced. I've had at least 10 secondaries here and I've always found I got my tax dollars' worth of service.

It is a simple mathematical principle that you cannot prove the non-existence of A by saying you have never encountered A. But you can prove the existence of B if you have even encountered one B.
So your statement that you have met "no jerks at YVR" doesn't mean anything about whether or not there are jerks at YVR.
With regards to a statement "immigration at YVR are jerks"-if you don't like the fact I didn't qualify "immigration" with "some", then I presume you have issues with basically any statement. "Air Canada is the always late airline." Well, maybe 1 in a 1000 times they are on. That makes the statement invalid. Someone should qualify that statement. People make blanket statements. Like Tim Horton's is good. Does it mean they have never had an experience in which there was an aspect of Tim Horton's they thought wasn't good? It's just a way people speak.
(like Flyertalk has the worst IT :D)

I haven't the slightest clue what your point is. It sounds like you are agreeing with me, just because you said they are jerks doesn't mean it is true any more than me saying they aren't.

I am not saying you didn't have a bad experience. However I have had nothing but great experiences, as well as some other posters. Other than you venting about a bad experience I don't see the point of this thread.

This is FT which is all anecdotal, but absolutely nothing in this thread, nor my own experience leads me to think that a blanket statement declaring YVR immigration are jerks is warranted.

The way you are arguing on here, actually sheds some light on why you might experience issues at immigration.

Also since you want to lecture me on FT 101, something you should keep in mind is on FT analogies never work. Air Canada, Timmy's, not a great analogy for Customs. Just saying.

It's not about the seriousness, it's about the non-sensical questions that they ask with all the sanctimonious seriousness.

"Why are you coming to Canada" is a reasonable question to Canadians who are non-residents and may be entering to illegally access the public health care system.

What kind of nonsensical questions are they asking?

I mean it could be technique, like catch someone off-guard and see how they respond. It works well in interviews to weed out people. Ask them something random and all of sudden they turn into themselves versus their rehearsed self.

Again not saying they are perfect or bad interactions don't happen. I am honestly trying to figure out what makes YVR so bad versus other crossings, it goes against every experience I have had at YVR.

I have had such a consistent experience at every crossing for my entire life. I am not even saying it is good, all I am saying is I really see no difference at YVR.

I'd disagree with that, as that sort of enforcement doesn't fall within the jurisdiction of immigration or customs. Let's say I did come back to Canada to access the public health care system. Even if I told that to a CBSA officer at the border, there's little they could do with that information beyond tip off the police that I might at some point in the future do something illegal. They wouldn't be able to stop me from entering Canada because I have a right to do so as a Canadian citizen, and they couldn't arrest me because I hadn't brought or done anything illegal.

Admission of an intent to commit illegal act while in the country would certainly get you sent to secondary. If a CBSA officer were told the reason for coming to Canada was to rob a bank I'm fairly sure they wouldn't just wave the person through.

I once had a longish layover at YVR so I asked the agent whey she was asking me the purpose of entering Canada. She said it was to judge the risk that I was carrying contraband. Which, actually seems like a pretty reasonable point. If I don't have any reason to visit that I can tell them then presumably I have a reason I can't tell them... The only problem is that as a Canadian it's pretty easy to just say "to visit friends and family" so I'm not sure how useful it is in practice. I can't imagine they care about health care access -- I suspect they wouldn't do anything even if you said that was exactly what you were doing.

My guess is it has just as much to do with with how you answer versus the words you say. Even their question is probably more to get you talking and reacting than anything.

Even before my homeland entered the EU and travelling on that "Second World" passport, I was never subjected, anywhere in Europe, to the kind of questions that CBSA officials ask me as a returning Canadian citizen.

This notion that a citizen entering his own country should somehow be under suspicion of intending to commit a crime is just... I have a word for it, but don't want to get permanently suspended from this forum. Good Lord!

Yes, some posters are saying you need to come up with a "good story."

My "honest friend" told immigration that he didn't have any plans (he went to Quebec City for a short vacation). For some, who are of the mindset that CBSA is supposed to catch contraband and whatever they do has its purpose, then he "should" get interrogated. But he was just telling the truth. He literally didn't make any plans cause he just likes to wander around, find something interesting, talk to strangers.
So, to get through immigration more easily, he should make up a story, or come up with a detailed itinerary of his plans. Even though that would be lying

I would suggest flying in to YTZ or YYJ, you will have a lot easier time with CBSA, but I think that would be hard to do that from Europe, though not too hard from the US.
I did that sometimes, flying in to YTZ instead of YYZ-made life a lot better.

Every person coming into the country, citizen or not, is asked questions to ascertain they are not committing a crime. It what customs and immigration does.