Canadian Border Crossing?

[Dan In Indiana]

Spent the day yesterday with the President of the Indiana Hunter Education Association at the Range Day for our Conservation Officers Youth Camp. He was telling us that when he went to the International meeting in Toronto a few weeks ago, that among other questions that he was asked as he stopped at the border was "did he have any PUDDING with him"? Pudding I ask? What's with that, some kind of Canadian lingo for some contraband? He had know idea, and was not about to ask WTF they were talking about as they definetly displaying a bad attitude. BTW, he is a LEO and his passenger was a DNR LEO so they were doing the nicey, cooperating, smiling thingy. What's up with "pudding"? Inquiring minds want to know?

OFC Central Indiana Chapter

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[John Kepler]

Hey...it's Da Gub'mint, anything is possible! Stupid questions at the border are the rule rather than the exception...so is "attitude"!

Case-In-Point: Detroit-Windsor Border crossing, US-side, as the officious uniformed moron is holding my completely valid US Passport; "What Nationality are you?". Heere's your sign!

[Dave]

If it was "Canadian lingo for some kind of contraband" he should of asked what the guy meant, cause maybe he had some. But I doubt they use 'slang' when questioning people coming into the country. I'm sure he meant "pudding", maybe some sort of e-coli (sp?)scare? He should have asked--those people are very professional, and would have given an explaination.

[Dave]

Stupid question at the border? Every see "Great Escape", the German asked a question in english and the guy slips and answers in english?

[John Kepler]

And that was fiction! I deal with US Customs, Immigration, and Border Protection each and every day....they ain't that bright!

[Jim K]

The woman customs cop I encountered was not at all nice or professional. Perhaps I fit their profile of the "right-wing insane mad-dog extremist gun crazy terrorist Yank" (a picture that the Canadian government and press have been promoting for years), but she questioned me for about ten minutes as to whether I had a gun in the car, but did not actually search the car. At last, with a show of great reluctance, she allowed us to leave; I could see her nasty scowl in the rear view mirror. Needless to say, I will NOT be returning to Canada any time soon, no matter how pretty their tourist board TV ads are.

Coming back (this was before the ID rule was in place), the U.S. customs guard looked at our license plate, said, "Welcome home!", and waved us through.

Jim

[Ken The Kanuck]

Funny the different stories I hear. I cross the border quite often and there seem to be a more pricks in American uniforms rather in Canadian uniforms. But they are in both uniforms.

I have no idea what " pudding " is. It certainly isn't a western Canadian slang term. Maybe the guard was only screwing with you? Contary to what some posters have said I don't think the guards on either side are all that stupid, as a matter of fact they are trained to observe responses. I wonder what would of caused the guard to ask that question???

I was busted once by the American border guards, for smugging sausage. Yep that's right us Canadian terrorists are trying to take down the U.S. with Kobassa. Amazing how the Americans can track down 1 cow with mad cow diease to it's stall in Calgary but you can't figure out how 12 million illegal Mexicans got into your country.

Regarding guns and ammo crossing the border, what do you think would happen to me if the American border guards found a gun in my truck when I was going down to the States? Hell with the new homeland security rules after 911 I can't even take a gun or ammo out of the States, never know when I'll turn around and invade the U.S. with that case of trap load.

KTK

[Gibbs505]

There are many forms of pudding, you can get most of them at your local Safeway! You can also make your own!

I do not know why you were asked about pddings in Ontario but there have been some contaimation scares in the last few years over different contaminations. Maybe there was a question regarding food poisioning in the area?

[Hal O'Peridol]

I was crossing the US-Kanuck border a couple of years ago, and the Canadian Customs female dog saw a copy of Shotgun News on my front seat. She got all agitated like, and asked me if I owned any guns. I replied that I am not bringing any guns across the border. She again said, in a real snarky tone "I didn't ask you that, I asked do you own any guns!"

I repeated that I was not bringing any across. She then said "Either answer the question, or I'll refuse you entry into Canada!" Since my wife and kids live in Kanuckistaan, I figured I should probably answer, especially if I wanted to have a happy ending for the upcoming weekend.

"Yes I do own guns" I replied.
"How many guns do you own?" she inquired.
"A few"
"How many or you will be refused entry!"
"Oh, probably about 50 or so."
"Why do you own so many?"

"Because MY GOVERNMENT trusts me with them! NOW I want to see your supervisor."

I had a nice talk with her supervisor, he apologized for the inappropriate questions, and I never saw her working the booths again.

BTW Ken, this was at the truck crossing.
Sorry that you had issues with some of the US guys. A couple of years ago the Customs Service and Border Patrol transferred a bunch of agents who had spent many years down on the US-Messican border. There was a bit of a culture change they had to go through when learning to interact with the Canadians. Hopefully it has improved for you.

[Hal O'Peridol]

Oh, yeah, I got one of those new-fangled "Enhanced Drivers License" ID card thingy. The one with the RFID chip in it. Got it the middle of May, it's already stopped working.