[lupusreal]

I drove into Canada with a friend a few years ago. The border agent asked if we had any guns with us; fair, I expect that. I expected she would then ask to search our car, but she didn't. Instead we started getting grilled about which guns we owned at home, how long we owned them, why we owned them. I owned none so my answers were easy but she was asking very pointed questions to my friend who felt compelled to be honest by a suspicious that she had access to some databases and would know if he was lying. After about 30 minutes of this we were allowed to enter, without the car being searched. Utterly bizarre. My best guess is she just felt like harassing somebody.

[ethbr1]

In my 20s, I had a Kafkaesque interaction at Vancouver customs about whether my visit was for business or pleasure.

I explained that my father was at a conference, and that I was there to both help and be a tourist.

Did not parse with Mr. Papers Please. "Which one is it?" in increasingly aggressive tones.

Finally I just picked one, he gave me my stamp, and I went through.

[throwaway5959]

We got extorted out of $300 to cross the border for three days over a just barely over the limit DUI my wife had something like 10 years ago. Funny thing is, neither of us drink now and wouldn’t be driving anyhow, so it would have been impossible for us to drive drunk. Victoria was nice but we won’t be back.