I had a little run in with Canada Customs the other day. Maybe I should have just shut up, maybe I did the right thing. Who knows. Enjoy my letter of complaint:

Attention Manager, Canada Border Services;

On April 27th around 630pm I was passing through the final check point at Pearson and approached the exit. A girl, of approximate age 9, was struggling with a large push car that was over filled with bags. It had to weigh twice her. Peace Officer XX was sitting at his post with a perturbed look and began berating the girl. While I cannot remember the exact words, it was along the line of hurry up, hurry up, even though she was struggling. I passed her and stated ‘give her a break, she is having trouble with the bags’.

He took my card, put it in the pile and waved me through. I got about 15 feet up and he yelled the following to me (I remember it clearly):

‘Hey buddy stop, I was going to give you a free pass but not now’. Shocked, I returned and stated ‘you are going to drag me back because I told you to lay off the little girl’. He responded with ‘You should not have said anything. No more talk off you go’. Irate, I turned and said ‘jerk’ (Which I should not have). The Peace Officer beside me heard and in no uncertain terms said ‘keep it to yourself and file a complaint inside if you want’.

I moved inside. About 3 or 4 minutes went by and 3 other officers walked by. I asked to see a supervisor and they advised me to get through the line and ask at check in.

Moments later, Peace Office XX came down the line and started confronting me. This was fully witnessed by the supervisor.

He stuck his finger in my face and stared yelling at me that I cannot call him that. He was very angry. At this point, I did not respond to his confrontation but clearly stated the following ‘After an 8 hour flight you dragged me in here after letting me by because I caught you being rude to a 9 year old girl. Shame on you’

The supervisor pushed him back gently, he did not move, and asked him to go back to his post. He did not. The supervisor did it again, asking him to return to his post. Finally, he turned around and began leaving.

I said to the supervisor that I wanted to file a complaint about that man and restated the above. Peace Officer xxx turned around and started coming back again. The supervisor turned and told him to return to his post in a firm tone. He did.

This represents a blatant abuse of authority and behaviour that was unfitting a Canadian government employee. If I had wagged my finger and come into his face in as menacing a manner, I would be writing this from a cell.

I recognize that I should not have gotten frustrated and used the aforementioned word. That being said, shame on him for picking on an overloaded girl and shame on our system if his rude behaviour and abuse of authority is not reprimanded.