Hi guys!!
Ok, I admit it, I am a bit of an unconventional traveler. Without getting in too much detail, I enjoy traveling, and particularly short trips. I go abroad every weekend and I don't really care about the distance. I go, from Europe, to weekend trips to Asia, Middle East, USA, and sometimes long weekend trips to Australia, New Zealand.. you get the picture. I travel almost every weekend.
I understand why that must seem odd to Canadian immigration but I've already done many weekends in various Canadian cities and even more in the US. I have never had immigration problems in any country except Canada and in particular last weekend in Vancouver the immigration officials went a bit mental even though it was my 3rd time in Vancouver. They saw that my passport are full of stamps from all countries including Canadian ones, they saw my itinerary but then they opened my laptop and asked me to log into my email and started reading my personal emails, then went through my folders in my laptop drive and started playing my MP3s out loud (so embarrassing), they asked me to log into my facebook (!!!) and started reading my personal messages and even saw all the albums from my trips which are about 200 albums of me and friends laughing and having fun and they still weren't convinced. They also took my phone and started looking at my photos on my phone and then reading my private SMS...
I have been traveling a lot but I have NEVER experienced such an invasive search and I am wondering whether it is even legal?
Who knows the law on this? Can officials do such things without asking permission?
At some point they found a diary entry I had written to myself and started reading my deepest thoughts which I thought was even more invasive than sticking a flashlight up my butt, which would have been a lot preferable at that point.
They did let me through, but they didn't apologize and I MUST say that it doesn't look good for Canada that a traveler who had no problems going anywhere else in the world would for the first time encounter problems in a country that is supposedly cool and western.
More importantly I am very curious about the extend of liberties Canadian immigration officials have, especially in regards to asking permission for invasive searches. At one point I was thinking that it would be preferable for me to ask them to stop the search so I could return to Europe than to continue with feeling so uncomfortable. In Europe generally they have to be extremely polite about such sensitive things.
