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I lived on the US / Canadian border for 5 years and traveled to Canada. I can tell you with all honesty that border guards on both sides were very hostile towar

I lived on the US / Canadian border for 5 years and traveled to Canada. I can tell you with all honesty that border guards on both sides were very hostile toward me on a very frequent occurrence. When I've traveled through South America and Europe it was very much the same. Hell, it still shocks me that there were soldiers on my train in France with machine guns roaming the aisles.

andai 9y ago
Where are you from where it isn't like this?
busterarm 9y ago
Yeah, I had close to the same as the OP happen to me on the Canadian side. I was booted at Peace Bridge, told to go home, but without the ban (I don't have any criminal record, DUI or anything like that). I simply caught an amped up guard on a bad day. Had it happened to me a couple of years later it would probably be a ban. I realize now that the frequency of my border crossings made my story inevitable --- it's literally playing the odds. I've been back to Canada a few times since, always with great trouble at the border. 2 hour plus interview. It completely ended an LTR that I had with a Canadian (I lived close to the border at the time) and the idea of emigrating there. I don't go back, because it's not worth it and honestly it's Canada's loss, not mine.
seszett 9y ago
> it still shocks me that there were soldiers on my train in France with machine guns roaming the aisles. It was probably their standard service rifles rather than machine guns. If it was around the mid 90s, the last three years, or some other period in-between with heightened terrorist threat, they were there for your security. Unlike US policemen, French soldiers have never killed civilians until now, so you should feel quite safe when seeing them. They also don't arrest you, act aggressive or interact at all with civilians unlike border guards, so I don't see any link with the current topic.
- thieving_magpie 9y ago
  This was in 2008. Yeah I'm totally ignorant on the type of guns so they probably were just standard service rifles. I frequently saw them traveling in groups of three and having dogs sniff me while I rode the train. Again, it was just a bit of a culture shock I'm not saying anything negative about it. Your comparison of US Policemen and French soldiers isn't fair. I've known a couple people from France of Algerian descent, you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police.
  - seszett 9y ago
    > you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police. I was talking about the soldiers though, and how they are actually harmless to civilians. Police is of course a different matter, even though they still are far less lethal than in the US. As far as I know, in the US soldiers don't patrol the streets and their role is taken by the police force however, so that's why I compared them. My wife is not from Europe and I live in the "Arab district" of my city, so I have a reasonably good understanding of how our police force works.
    - thieving_magpie 9y ago
      I understand. I'm simply saying that it's a poor comparison due to the differences in the relationship between Local police and federal (agencies/soldiers,etc) and in France with police/Gendarmerie/etc.
chrisseaton 9y ago
I'm not sure I believe you that anyone would carry a machine gun on a train - the long barrels would make it impossible to even turn around on a train.
- jvzr 9y ago
  Probably a bullpup machine gun, like the Famas, especially for the French military. Not sure about the terminology though: is a machine gun? automatic rifle? Frog here, not used to guns.
  - curtis 9y ago
    Automatic Rifle. The major difference between an automatic rifle and a machine gun is the latter is designed for sustained automatic fire. Machine guns will typically be quite a bit heavier since that helps with sustained fire. Submachine guns are automatic pistols, which is to say they fire lower power pistol ammunition, and, like pistols, usually have shorter barrels than rifles. Typically also have accuracy comparable to pistols rather than rifles.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  "I'm not sure I believe you" are really caught off guard by someone speaking imprecisely about firearms.
- jeroen 9y ago
  https://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/103710/55/1037105579.jpg https://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/103710/55/1037105579... That is Charles de Gaulle Airport, but I have seen the same type of soldier at train stations in France. Regardless of what it's called, that is the type of weapon they have.
  - chrisseaton 9y ago
    Yeah that’s an assault rifle.
  - bragh 9y ago
TheCoelacanth 9y ago
It baffles me why they are like that considering how many hundreds of miles of completely unsecured border there are between the two countries. You could easily cross the border by canoe without seeing more than a handful of other people who would have no way of knowing your nationality. I believe it is even legal to cross the border like that as long as you promptly report to one of a handful of customs offices when you reach shore.
peterwwillis 9y ago
> Hell, it still shocks me that there were soldiers on my train in France with machine guns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Thalys_train_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Thalys_train_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2015_%C3%8Ele-de-France_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2015_%C3%8Ele-de-Franc...
JBlue42 9y ago
Crossing by land will always be more annoying than crossing by air or train, I've found. With the exception of flying into JFK and still being in line for an hour as an American.

andai 9y ago

Where are you from where it isn't like this?

busterarm 9y ago

Yeah, I had close to the same as the OP happen to me on the Canadian side. I was booted at Peace Bridge, told to go home, but without the ban (I don't have any criminal record, DUI or anything like that). I simply caught an amped up guard on a bad day. Had it happened to me a couple of years later it would probably be a ban. I realize now that the frequency of my border crossings made my story inevitable --- it's literally playing the odds. I've been back to Canada a few times since, always with great trouble at the border. 2 hour plus interview. It completely ended an LTR that I had with a Canadian (I lived close to the border at the time) and the idea of emigrating there. I don't go back, because it's not worth it and honestly it's Canada's loss, not mine.

seszett 9y ago

> it still shocks me that there were soldiers on my train in France with machine guns roaming the aisles. It was probably their standard service rifles rather than machine guns. If it was around the mid 90s, the last three years, or some other period in-between with heightened terrorist threat, they were there for your security. Unlike US policemen, French soldiers have never killed civilians until now, so you should feel quite safe when seeing them. They also don't arrest you, act aggressive or interact at all with civilians unlike border guards, so I don't see any link with the current topic.

thieving_magpie 9y ago
This was in 2008. Yeah I'm totally ignorant on the type of guns so they probably were just standard service rifles. I frequently saw them traveling in groups of three and having dogs sniff me while I rode the train. Again, it was just a bit of a culture shock I'm not saying anything negative about it. Your comparison of US Policemen and French soldiers isn't fair. I've known a couple people from France of Algerian descent, you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police.
- seszett 9y ago
  > you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police. I was talking about the soldiers though, and how they are actually harmless to civilians. Police is of course a different matter, even though they still are far less lethal than in the US. As far as I know, in the US soldiers don't patrol the streets and their role is taken by the police force however, so that's why I compared them. My wife is not from Europe and I live in the "Arab district" of my city, so I have a reasonably good understanding of how our police force works.
  - thieving_magpie 9y ago
    I understand. I'm simply saying that it's a poor comparison due to the differences in the relationship between Local police and federal (agencies/soldiers,etc) and in France with police/Gendarmerie/etc.

chrisseaton 9y ago

I'm not sure I believe you that anyone would carry a machine gun on a train - the long barrels would make it impossible to even turn around on a train.

jvzr 9y ago
Probably a bullpup machine gun, like the Famas, especially for the French military. Not sure about the terminology though: is a machine gun? automatic rifle? Frog here, not used to guns.
- curtis 9y ago
  Automatic Rifle. The major difference between an automatic rifle and a machine gun is the latter is designed for sustained automatic fire. Machine guns will typically be quite a bit heavier since that helps with sustained fire. Submachine guns are automatic pistols, which is to say they fire lower power pistol ammunition, and, like pistols, usually have shorter barrels than rifles. Typically also have accuracy comparable to pistols rather than rifles.
maxerickson 9y ago
"I'm not sure I believe you" are really caught off guard by someone speaking imprecisely about firearms.
jeroen 9y ago
https://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/103710/55/1037105579.jpg https://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/103710/55/1037105579... That is Charles de Gaulle Airport, but I have seen the same type of soldier at train stations in France. Regardless of what it's called, that is the type of weapon they have.
- chrisseaton 9y ago
  Yeah that’s an assault rifle.
- bragh 9y ago

TheCoelacanth 9y ago

It baffles me why they are like that considering how many hundreds of miles of completely unsecured border there are between the two countries. You could easily cross the border by canoe without seeing more than a handful of other people who would have no way of knowing your nationality. I believe it is even legal to cross the border like that as long as you promptly report to one of a handful of customs offices when you reach shore.

peterwwillis 9y ago

> Hell, it still shocks me that there were soldiers on my train in France with machine guns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Thalys_train_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Thalys_train_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2015_%C3%8Ele-de-France_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2015_%C3%8Ele-de-Franc...

JBlue42 9y ago

Crossing by land will always be more annoying than crossing by air or train, I've found. With the exception of flying into JFK and still being in line for an hour as an American.