Originally Posted by Almost Canadian

Have there been any major incidents anywhere in the world on any of the anniversaries of September 11, 2001?

Originally Posted by magnumpi

Nope, looks like the high security at this time is working good

Originally Posted by Zoe Bell

occasionally there's an elephant in the plane though
BBC News - The elephant that flew

Originally Posted by magnumpi

I suspect this will be normal on the run up to Nine 11.

Originally Posted by Dahab

I am not aware of any increase in the level of threat to Toronto.

Originally Posted by magnumpi

Thats good news, i take it that u are head of a security firm yeh, phew so it was just coz they was a bit bored.

Originally Posted by Former Lancastrian

As I have been told many many times by the public I pay your salary.
So going by that statement alone the more times I check your passport means you are getting value for money as opposed to me only checking it once or is there some flaw in my logic? There again one could argue that the more times you have your passport checked especially by the same group of people wearing the same uniform then either the ability to do a cursory check of a passport is severely flawed and we need more training or we are like other unionized workers who stand around all day doing nothing or part of the 6 person team thats required to dig a hole.
This conundrum will surely be causing me sleepless nights over the next few months and I might need to seek professional help in dealing with this sensitive situation.

Originally Posted by Former Lancastrian

As I have been told many many times by the public I pay your salary.
So going by that statement alone the more times I check your passport means you are getting value for money as opposed to me only checking it once or is there some flaw in my logic? There again one could argue that the more times you have your passport checked especially by the same group of people wearing the same uniform then either the ability to do a cursory check of a passport is severely flawed and we need more training or we are like other unionized workers who stand around all day doing nothing or part of the 6 person team thats required to dig a hole.
This conundrum will surely be causing me sleepless nights over the next few months and I might need to seek professional help in dealing with this sensitive situation.

Originally Posted by Jack1

Canadian's don't seem to care about complaining about these sorts of things, what a waste of time and money. There are officials checking and rechecking the same documents several times from the time you get out off the plane and get out of the airport.

There's also the ridiculously low customs thresholds ($60 per visitor to Canada?) but that is a different matter.

Furthermore, some of the personnel checking the passports and documents sitting at the desks are wearing what appears to be bullet proof vests. Has anyone else noticed this? The only people who will pass through their counter is people who have just got off a PLANE. What would that protection be for?

You come to the UK and the officials are efficient and fast. If the UK can do it when they are far more likely to be attacked or have 'bad people' try to get in then Canada should be able to do it, but of course, it's inefficient bumbling Canadians who are in charge. This is the city and country were the police decided to remove small trees during the G20 in case they were used as a weapon.

Why bother trying to improve anything though at the airport or at their terrible companies (Air Canada, Rogers, Bell etc.) when the government will implement laws to just block out the competition for you. It's sad that the Canadian public don't realize it's them that is suffering from this type of behaviour.

Originally Posted by jandro

The last time I passed through YVR (Vancouver) on a return journey over a year ago I got questioned by CBSA officers clad in bullet proof vests after I scanned my passport at the machine. Back in the 90s the customs agents wore blue shirts and the immigration officers wore white shirts with blue cardigans - much less intimidating.

Originally Posted by Cabbagetown

sometimes they inspect passports at YYZ just as one exists the plane. In this case, the officers would be waiting just outside of the plane. This is just a general look at the main passport page, nothing more. Now that it's mentioned in this thread, I am also surprised having remembered the bullet prove vests of some agents for passengers who just stepped of a plane. Just wondering, which airport would allow passengers to carry a gun for air travel? especially after Sept. 11th this would be rather rare, if not totally impossible.

As a Canadian citizen, I then go through the electronic entry, then print of a piece of paper and see an agent. Sometimes there are questions, but in general there are few questions.

Never had any real issues, but also wondered what is the real point of expecting a passport several times. It's not more secure, not for anybody. It's still the same document. If the passport is scanned in, fraud is easily detected these days. Maybe one agent doesn't trust the work of the other one?

Back when I was an immigrant I went back to Europe three times, for always one week around Christmas, once returning in Calgary. Calgary is the only time when they actually stamped my passport and noted "RR", possibly for returning resident? In YYZ they never stamped my passport.