Canadian Border officer were embarrasingly inept.

[Allyssa]

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

I recently came back into Canada from summer abroad. I was carrying a cheese with me that I bought in Tunisia. Understandably, the boarder control officer said she'd have to inspect the package before letting it in. The packaging was all in French and Arabic. I watched her try to "read" the packaging until she looked up and said, "I'm sorry I can't read this, so I'll have to keep it." Excuse me! Is this not Canada? I thought our bilingual status (that we are known for around the world) meant that our federal government offices were suppose to at least provide service in both languages. I said that I was not in a huge hurry and so if she needed to call a co-worker over to help translate she could. "No, all our French-speakers are busy right now." Can you believe that?
I asked her what she needed to find out from the packaging and she said -- "where it was made." Well, I don't speak French, but I can tell you that "Product du Egypt" roughly translates to "made in Egypt." I pointed that out on the container and she punched that info into her computer without a word.
Then she asked where I bought the product. When I responded "Tunisia" she said "uh-huh and where is that?" In northern Africa? So she types in "Northern Africa" then says -- "I have South Africa listed here, but not "northern Africa", what is the name of the country?" I explained that Tunisia is the name of the country, and she asked me, "and how do you spell that?"
Can you believe this? This is our Canadian boarder services? Don't get me wrong, I don't expect everyone to generally recognise the names of most countries in the world, but as border officers, this type of general knowledge is part of their job!
Considering this lady may be many people's first impression of Canadians, this was highly embarrassing. What if I had only spoken French -- would they have detained me, until a translator could be freed from coffee break? What if I was a Tunisian coming to visit? Would that have been a reasonable way to be treated?

Has anyone else had an experience like this? I hope not. I truly hope that this experience is the rare exception. I love Canada and I think we should be better represented to new visitors that this!

Venting,
Allyssa

[Reba]

I'm surprised she even pretended to read it or look it up. You're not allowed to bring cheese into the country anyhow, except from a few exemt US states.

http://cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5056-eng.pdf

[Steven]

At least she was awake.

[Allyssa]

I'm surprised she even pretended to read it or look it up. You're not allowed to bring cheese into the country anyhow, except from a few exemt US states.

http://cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5056-eng.pdf

Actually they ended up having no problem with the cheese. I got it back the next day. Go figure!

[joanneb]

I am surprised Allyssa that you wanted to vent about something like this? It is up to you to know what you can & can NOT bring back into Canada. Cheese is food product and the cheese you brought back was from Africa where their health regulations are (somewhat) different to those in Canada.
Were you venting because that particular Canadian border officer didn't happen to speak French? Or didn't know how to spell Tunisia? So what! Next time take the French Only queue.
Yes I agree often their attitude sucks but dealing with the general public sucks and doing the job they do - I am glad they are there.
You think our Border Officers have attitude - check out the border officers in a dictatorship or communist country.
I hope the cheese was worth the venting.

[Canucky Woman]

She was testing you I think.

My (now) husband was coming to visit me for the first time from Holland, and bought one of those gouda cheese gift packs they sell at Schiphol airport to give to my parents. He had no idea it would be problem as this was only the second time he had ever flown anywhere in his life (the first time was Newcastle six months before!).

When he arrived at Pearson, the customs guy saw the cheese, and started giving Dutchie the third degree, but it was almost comical:

"How many times have you been in Canada?"

"This is my first time in Canada."

"When was the last time you were in Canada?"

"This is my first time in Canada."

.and so on and so on.asking the same damn question, but in a variety of different ways, trying to make Dutchie slip up.Dutchie didn't of course (the Dutch are pretty good at English compared to a lot of European countries, and Dutchie majored in English at uni).

So she may have been acting dumber than a bag of hammers, but she could have been testing your story in a very rough way.

Oh, and btw, Dutchie got to keep his cheese too. But learnt not to bring some next time!

[carebear256]

I am surprised Allyssa that you wanted to vent about something like this? It is up to you to know what you can & can NOT bring back into Canada. Cheese is food product and the cheese you brought back was from Africa where their health regulations are (somewhat) different to those in Canada.
Were you venting because that particular Canadian border officer didn't happen to speak French? Or didn't know how to spell Tunisia? So what! Next time take the French Only queue.
Yes I agree often their attitude sucks but dealing with the general public sucks and doing the job they do - I am glad they are there.
You think our Border Officers have attitude - check out the border officers in a dictatorship or communist country.
I hope the cheese was worth the venting.

so what?! I am so embarrassed when someone from Canada can't speak or understand even a little bit of french, aren't we supposed to be a bilingual country? what a joke!
as the boarder control is run by the federal gvt you are entitled to service in french or english, we shouldn't have a french only line or an english only line all agents should be fluent in both languages.
I am so sick of the attitude that french people have towards the english and vice versa.
I can only say that I feel privileged to have grown up in quebec with english as my mother tongue, as I have been forced to learn french living in quebec and I can also speak english perfectly.

now that my little vent is over, you should have known you aren't allowed to bring cheese in, or the boarder officer should have informed you.

[Allyssa]

Actually they allowed the cheese and said later that hard cheese should never cause a problem -- apparently, it is ones in brine that are the issure (ex. Feta)
Whatever the case, you are right the cheese isn't the issue. It was the fact that no one speaking French was even available. At out airport there is no French only or English only line from what I could see.
Allyssa