Canada customs inspection - argh!

They went to search my computer once. He grabbed it and started off and I said hold it. There are 56 tax client files and returns on that computer and you cannot look at those files without me being present since I am responsible for their data. They took me in the back to search it with them.

They never asked about the 200 audio book cd's I had.

It was a total waste of time, but they did say that about 50% of truck drivers have child porn on the computer.

 

Not wanting to hassle with customs was one of the reasons I opted to not get back into trucking after I got my CDL last year.

 

Just wondering, what if you have all or parts of your computer password protected, are they smart enough to break the codes or do you just go to jail for not providing them?

 

If your computer cannot be checked and you do not give them the password, it is seized. You stand to have some major problems.

 

What exactly are they looking for? They let you through with porn, so what then, copyrighted material? The thing I worry about is I have my entire DVD collection about 300 movies, ripped and stored on a half a terabyte external drive. Why? Obviously it's not very convenient to haul around 300 DVD cases, so I have them all stored on a device the size of a cigarette pack. Very cool.

I'm going to get clobbered for that ain't I?

Do they search your pockets?

 

Porn is not the problem.

CHILD PORN is what they are looking for.

 

Well, I don't have any porn, period. Well, maybe some flash files in my browser's cache, but clearing that isn't a problem. I'm just worried about my movies. It wouldn't be the end of the world if they took the drive, it's only a $100 and a whole lot of hours spent compressing the movies into 700 megabyte avi files...

 

I crossed since 2004. It was only searched once.

 

man, My boss has been bugging me for months to get a passport. I kept putting it off and putting it off.. I went and applied for it finally about 3 weeks ago. They said it would take 4-6 week for me to get it back. Stupid thing showed up in the mailbox 2 weeks later. I haven't told them it's in my pocket yet. I don't want to deal with this nonsense.