My Experience

This website is the result of my experience at the hands of one Customs agent acting is an arbitrary and capricious manner. My family and I crossed into Canada at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie on Friday June 8th 2001 at approximately 1 p.m. We waited in a line of cars for our turn. The ever present "all people entering Canada must declare all firearms and offensive weapons" sign was clerely visible. When we pulled up to the agent, he asked our citizenships, I told him I was a Canadian residing in the States, my wife replied that she and our infant daughter were American, and my other daughter declared she was Canadian. He asked my daughter how long she was out of the country and what the purpose of the journey was. She replied she went to visit her father.

Already seeming somewhat confused by the unusual mix of status, he asked if we had any purchases to declare. We said no.

It was at that point, he asked the dreaded question:

Do you have any offensive weapons?

Not wishing to assign any negative motives or conotations to any of my property, I replied:

"What do you mean by 'offensive weapons'"?

The agents response:

"Mace, knives, stuff like that".

I replied:

"Well, I do have a couple of knives".

At that point the agent replied:

"Let me see them"

I reached into my glove box and pulled out a curved hunting knife in its sheath with a 5 inch blade. The agent asked:

"What do you use that for"?

I replied:

"It is a tool I use for camping".

The agent said:

"Fine, what else do you have"?

At that point, I pulled out from beside my seat a 12 inch double edged dagger in a sheath, held it up and said:

"This"

The agent's somewhat surprised response:

"THAT isn't a camping tool, that is not allowed into Canada".

NOTE: At no time did I claim ANY use for the dagger, unlike the hunting knife, I was never given the opportunity to explain why I had it. In response I replied (knowing full well the answer),

"Where in the Criminal code does it say that knives over a certain length are prohibited in this country?"

The agents response:

"That does not matter, you better go inside and speak to someone".

The agent then wrote a slip sending me to secondary inspection, where I fell into the clutches of Customs Officer 12078. I call him that because he accidently or deliberately forgot to sign his name on the receipt I was to receive later for my abandoned property.

Customs Officer 12078 comes up to my car and takes my slip and asked what the problem is. I explained that the inspector at the booth had a problem with my knife, which I pulled out of the car and showed to him.

Customs Officer 12078 explained that such a knife was not allowed in Canada, and that Canadians did not have knives that big. I demanded that the officer show me the Criminal Code section that banned knives over a certain length. He responded that he didn't have to show me anything, and that all that mattered was that HE said the knife was not allowed, no other authority mattered, HE would decide. I repeated my demand that he show me the criminal code section that declared the knife illegal. At that point Customs Officer 12078 said:

You know what, I'm going to send you back

My response:

You CAN'T send me back, I'm Canadian

Customs Officer 12078 said,

well, you an take it back, or it is forfeit.

I had no intention of returning to the states, so I told him to keep it.

Customs Officer 12078 then asked:

What other weapons do you have?

I explained that I also had what is coloquilly called a billy club. At this point, the whole turn of events became truly bizarre.

Customs Officer 12078 said:

A billy is illegal in Canada, I could call the police right now and have you arrested.

Interesting, he makes no mention of having the police arrest me for the large knife, which suggests that he KNOWS FULL WELL the knife is legal, yet he threatens to have me arrested for the billy.

A perusal of the list of prohibited weapons shows quite clearly that a billy club is NOT prohibited. It seems that agent 12078 was either confused or was deliberately lying to try and intimidate me.

He asks:

What do you use it for?

I explain that one can use it to check tire pressure by rapping on the sidewall. We go back out to the car, where he procedes to search the car. He sees the sheathed hunting knife in the glove box, examines it and puts it back, finds a buck knife (which I forgot was there) in the door panel, looks at it and replaces it, and checks out the billy. He askes if I have anything else, and I reply the tire iron could be a weapon. Tiring of this, Customs Officer 12078 says he will accept my explanation for the billy and let me keep it if I put it in the back of the car.

We go inside where Officer 12078 writes me a receipt for the dagger. As I am leaving, he states,

I don't like you attitude, and for you information, any knife longer that the width of your hand is a weapon.

(He failed to state that criterion applied only to knives who's design purpose was to inflict bodily harm).

So, we have the curious situation where Customs Officer 12078 confiscates a perfectly legal piece of property, and then lets me leave with a supposedly illegal weapon. It is obvious from this incident that Customs Officer 12078 was acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner, based solely on his personal idea of what is and is not suitable for a Canadian Citizen to posess. He acted entirely on his own whims and prejudices, and with utter disregard for any Criminal Code Statue regarding weapons.

It would seen that any person entering Canada, either visitor or returning resident can be at the mercy of a petty officious Customs agent like Customs Officer 12078.

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