Rude agents spur some to dodge Halifax
Consultant: Customs 'always an ordeal'
By JEFFREY SIMPSON Provincial Reporter
Tue, Oct 12 - 9:54 AM
The aggressive attitude and rude behaviour of border officials have prompted some frequent travellers to shun flying directly into Halifax when returning home from abroad.
"It’s an unpleasant experience and I try to avoid it," one Halifax business consultant said in an interview.
"It’s consistently the worst place to come back into."
The man, who didn’t want his name published for fear of reprisals from the Canada Border Service Agency, said he flies often to Europe, Asia and the United States for his work and has never encountered such poorly trained officials as at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
He tries arranging his itinerary so he enters the country in Toronto or Montreal, where he never has problems, he said.
"It’s a consistent prosecutorial attitude," he said about Halifax.
"If you don’t behave in a proper manner or are somehow resentful or show any indication that you haven’t liked their inquisitive attitude, then you’re detained for a search."
He describes the secondary search and interrogation about his travels as like being in "a punishment cell."
The man said he thought he was alone in his troubling experience with officials in Halifax and writing a letter of complaint never occurred to him. But documents released under the Access to Information Act from the Canada Border Services Agency show that other airline passengers arriving in Halifax have endured similar experiences. The written complaints revealed by The Chronicle Herald on Monday prompted dozens of readers to share their frustrating experiences.
"It’s always an ordeal," the business consultant said. "Their management is allowing them to adopt this attitude."
Jodi McLeod, who lives in New Brunswick, said her elderly, wheelchair-bound American in-laws were reduced to tears from the grilling they received from border services agents upon arriving in Halifax in June.
"It broke my heart," McLeod said. "It was so disturbing to them."
Her husband’s parents have owned a house in LaHave for 20 years, but an official still interrogated them about why they were coming to Canada and made nasty comments, telling them they weren’t wanted in the country, she said.
"She made it very clear to them that she had the power to put them back on a plane to the U.S.," McLeod said of the officer.
"She said it was people like ‘them’ that were coming into our country and bleeding our health-care system and our social system."
McLeod and her husband phoned to complain formally to the agency.
"Whoever processed them, in my opinion, needs to go back to the trailer park and get another job," she said.
"Park your politics at home. It was clear she had a complete distaste for Americans."
Linda Mason, of Crouse’s Settlement in Lunenburg County, said her experiences flying home through Halifax also make her want to avoid it.
"They just have this terrible attitude," Mason said. "I’d rather come into Canada through Toronto."
She was upset after being flagged for a secondary inspection upon returning home from New York three years ago. The border official sifted through her prescriptions and asked why she was taking a blood pressure pill.
"I just found it humiliating," Mason said.
"If you say something and your name goes up on a screen and you get flagged, well then, good luck."
Bernd Michaelis, a German who flew into Halifax on a Condor flight with about 200 of his fellow countrymen last year, said the Europeans were shocked to be greeted by two customs agents with a dog who shouted at them to line up against a wall.
"Please understand that German people, especially of the ‘older’ variety — and most of them were — have been marked by the atrocities of the Third Reich and the Cold War and are very, very sensitive to this sort of approach," Michaelis said.
Joel MacDougall, a spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency, told The Chronicle Herald last week in a written statement that such allegations are taken seriously and every complaint is investigated.
"All CBSA employees are subject to strict standards of conduct," the statement says. "Any breaches are dealt with in accordance with public service standards of discipline . . . up to and including termination."
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‘I’d rather come into Canada through Toronto’
Lunenburg County woman
LINDA MASON
It's stories like this that airlines look for when considering new destinations. This doesn't bode well for YHZ if they are trying to attract new routes. Why would say British Airways or Air France/KLM come to Halifax if their passengers are going to be treated like dirt?
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