I just returned from LHR with my daughter and when we got to Customs I was asked if I had a Travel Letter for my child. She asked my daughter some questions and seemed satisfied. I found this pretty odd as I was RETURNING home to my wife. At LHR we weren't asked for this letter, go figure. This is the first time I've been asked for this when returning home and the Agent was shocked (and said so) that I had not been asked before.

Is this something that is being pushed by the authorities and can it just be a written letter from my wife?

(I do understand the need when LEAVING my home country but not when RETURNING.)

You sure your wife doesn't live in the UK?

i remember last year or the year before a few times CBSA guards deserted their posts because the americans told them a criminal was coming up from the US

Yes, that's a bad anecdote. But anecdotal evidence doesn't mean much in the general case, and I can quote probably 100+ entries into Canada without any such nonsense. So what does that one anecdote prove? That there are bad apples in any organization?

Exactly. Why are people dragging in stories of their friend's neighbour's relatives, twice removed?

Also, what's the relation to armed criminals coming through the land border?

For one, I have found CBSA Officers do their job and I don't begrudge them for it. I have been to secondary once in my life and got out without incident.

I've also been to US secondary a few times without incident and have had more problems with EU Customs/Immigration than Canada. So what? Every seasoned traveller has had a little trouble with Customs/Immigrations at least once in their travels.

This conflicts with YOUR own views on entry into Canada.

Sanosuke!

No, it DOES NOT.

I am a Canadian citizen entering Canada.
You are a non-US citizen entering the US.

Simon

It's just one on top of many.

Are there many (majority?) cases where we have no problems - yes.

But from many of the posters here, myself included, pre-NEXUS, the questioning has, in sum, been ruder, more intrusive/aggressive, and more off-topic than entering EU/US both as a citizen or non-citizen of those states.

Simon

Actually, it will have bearing, period. If you got injured and it could have been prevented or minimized if you were wearing a vest, I think you would be crap out of luck to get workplace compensation, for example.

It would be like a construction worker not wearing a hard hat even though they are directed to do so.

Yes it does. When you think about the nature of questioning alone, yes you are conflicting with yourself. You think that the questioning by the US is perfectly fine yet you question your own country's line of questioning! Think about it this way, wouldn't you rather the questioning be the same as for everyone who enters our country, just like the US questions everyone that enters there too?

Sanosuke!

Precisely, or put another way... I am entering Canada by right as a citizen and resident, you are entering the US as their guest, asking permission.

I'm not sure if you (Sanosuke) are being purposely obtuse.

The line of questioning that a FOREIGN CITIZEN should face on admission as a guest with NO RIGHT OF ADMISSION to a FOREIGN COUNTRY is NOT the same as a CITIZEN re-entering their OWN COUNTRY.

I am being a bit obtuse by reason of your refusal to admit that just because you are a citizen of that country, you automatically should be waved through.

If you think about it this way, there is no perfect right to re-admissibility to your own country. They could just detain you if they found out you were lying on the form, this is the reason why they have secondary, and herein the reason why they can charge and jail you if they find out the crime is serious enough.

Maybe CBSAguy here can shed some more light on this.

Sanosuke!

Maybe not everyone. I hold US and Canadian passports but have lived in Canada almost my entire life. No US immigration agent has ever questioned me to the extent that CBSA agents have. And only US agents have ever said "welcome home" to me.

And just HOW does CBSA purport to determine I am a criminal by asking what my job is? By harrassing me about how long I have been away and what I am bringing back when it is WRITTEN ON THE FORM? By questioning other posters on this thread in the way they have? By being rude? By being aggressive?

I am a Canadian citizen. Once that is proven, I have the right of admission to Canada. If someone wants to arrest me in Canada, that is a separate issue.

The US ABSOLUTELY has the right to ask way more detailed questions of you entering their country, as you have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to enter their country.

Unless we have way more people who are criminals trying to enter Canada on Canadian passports than entering the US on American passports or EU on EU passports, there is no reason that the level of questioning should be so much higher by CBSA than EU/US who look at the passport of their own citizens and off you go.

Your comparison of yourself, a non-citizen, entering a foreign country to me, a citizen, entering my own country is like comparing apples and motor oil. No relation, not even both food.

Simon