Actually had a Mean, Arrogant Canadian Border Guard

[SapphireDreams 71]

Well, I can tell you that I have 3 family members who work as border guards and I applied for a summer position back in my first year of university. It wasn't easy to get hired, no, but there was also nothing I went through that made me feel as though I would have been prepared to handle immigration matters either. They make you take a test, which is very similar to an IQ test, that has a few immigration related questions, but is mostly general knowledge/perception/memory testing. As far as training goes, its a wopping 2 weeks. You are transfered between stations. So one hour you work at the both, another hour you work at customs etc. Students aren't given absolute power, no, but my friend who was transfered to the refugee unit had far to much power for someone with that little training and experience... at least, from the stories she told me. She would come to school on monday and say, "oh I turned away a family from Eritrea yesterday," as if it was something to bost about.

Might be different for Pearson. My friend had to take a lot of visual tests of pictures of faces and she had to recognize and be able to remember certain faces and looks. I'm sure she did other IQ stuff as well, but I believe she said the training was about 4-6 weeks or so.

Oh, I agree Sapphire. I am not assuming of course that these kids would be making the final decision on anything. But just the fact that they are there to look for suspicious people. I have been a government worker since I was 16 years old and I understand federal and provincial and now state level policy pretty well. I don't think I could have been in that position though.

You really think it would be difficult to look for suspicious people though if you were given good training? I don't think it would be. From the way my friend described it, she said they train you well to know exactly what to look for and it's really not THAT difficult.

When I was a summer student I think I was better at my job than some of the full timers! I was a customer service rep at a Utility company and many did people have messed up issues with the utility company!!

[JillA 2]

And it's not because we have a biased view of what goes into immigration, either. Would you hire a summer student as a cop? They both enforce the law!

WELL, they actually do that I belive at ocean city!!! or some beach area in MD or VA!! They hire University kids, put them thru a police boot camp,then they walk the boardwalk area and have ful police authority, even a gun! lol

Why does that not surprise me in this country

[thetreble 19]

*shrug*

America, I guess.

[The_Dude 1,142]

[CDAgirlMI 51]

Wow...

I'm sorry you & your wife had to go through that Bull$hit. That person was absolutley ignorant & had no right talking about her past like that. ####### does that have to do with crossing the border the day you 2 crossed???? Sorry for the language, but that's stupidly wrong.

I had an experience on the US side of the border once & someone once told me if any guard tells you something you believe is wrong or inexcusable, ask for supervisor. I know, he/she may not do anything, but its worth a try...plus it's a nice way of telling the guard "you're an a$$hole, I don't want to deal with you anymore".

My wife always says that people give her so much grief because she's so tiny (5 2ish at the most haha). I told her she just needs to start learning how to walk around on stilts Lol

LOL...she's got 2 inches up on me

[amberL 0]

Canada hires a lot of Students to act as Border agents during the summer!! Sorry about ur bad incident

Really!? You'd think the amount of time to train a BG would take the whole summer. I can't believe that!

I actually applied for a position like this when I was an undergrad. I declined because I did not want the commute. Blaming the crappiness on the border guard on being a student really isn't fair, its kinda derrogatory to students. A lot of people who get in a position of power become total jerks - I had one at the Embassy.

[JillA 2]

Canada hires a lot of Students to act as Border agents during the summer!! Sorry about ur bad incident

Really!? You'd think the amount of time to train a BG would take the whole summer. I can't believe that!

I actually applied for a position like this when I was an undergrad. I declined because I did not want the commute. Blaming the crappiness on the border guard on being a student really isn't fair, its kinda derrogatory to students. A lot of people who get in a position of power become total jerks - I had one at the Embassy.

It's nothing against students; it's that students only work for a few months in the summer so it doesn't seem like enough rigourous training would go into hiring a student. After all, these people are protecting our borders so I would hope the BG protecting Canada has had adequate proper training

[minnew 4]

There was no reason for your wife to be treated like that, at all!

I have had my share of arrogant guards on both sides of the border, but generally the problems I have had are with the women guards. I don't know why and I am not here to bash but they have always been less friendly and more towards interrogation. Also sometimes uninformed, like the whole rigamarole I had to go through with temp importing my engagement ring into Canada. I can understand if some are in-training, but not the ones who have an ego to go with it. I understand the guards have a duty to protect the country from people who do not have the privilege of entering, but when you are a Canadian citizen and have no reason to be denied entry I think its a bit ridiculous to be scrutinized so harshly.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Remind me never to take the tunnel .

[thetreble 19]

Robert! Don't be mad!

[Krikit 1,163]

Oh oh. You in trouble now. She's using full names.

[Carlawarla 1]

I'm so sorry bowflex, that you and your wife had to endure such ignorance. I think it's important to remember that Border Officials are just as unique as everyone else and that just like any profession there are good and bad. Lots of people have related some of their experiences here of "bad" staff, and someone has suggested it could have been a student, but it's important to remember that we shouldn't lump everyone in the same manner. There are several BG's here on VJ that are lovely people and I couldn't imagine them saying things like this.

[trailmix 77]

I'm so sorry bowflex, that you and your wife had to endure such ignorance. I think it's important to remember that Border Officials are just as unique as everyone else and that just like any profession there are good and bad. Lots of people have related some of their experiences here of "bad" staff, and someone has suggested it could have been a student, but it's important to remember that we shouldn't lump everyone in the same manner. There are several BG's here on VJ that are lovely people and I couldn't imagine them saying things like this.

There was no reason for your wife to be treated like that, at all!

I have had my share of arrogant guards on both sides of the border, but generally the problems I have had are with the women guards.

Agreed Carla, they are as unique as everyone else.

Our experience minnew has been the opposite, the female border guard we encountered coming in to the U.S. was lovely (she was a trainee - but not a student) - the male guard who processed my Husband's application was quite hostile about us importing our car.

It's really a weird situation - I believe they are trained to be aggressive and that they are sometimes agressive when they don't have to be - maybe they get bored, I don't know

[Krikit 1,163]

I just pray they've had a good sleep and don't have teenagers.

[thetreble 19]

Oh I agree. There are good and bad people at every job on this earth. Some people are sweet nature but terrible at their job. Some people are good at their job but are nasty! Just the way the world works.

I'm just uncomfortable with the idea of having 18 year olds work at the border and screen people. I think that's too young to be doing a job that involves immigration matters.