Am I the only one here who got let back into Canada from the US once without ANY paperwork checked at all? LOL
Happened to me once or twice.. They were more interested in how much we spent on the other side of the border.. Zero questions about weapons, terrorists or aliens, but spending was the big ticket item
Now, we have been detained for interrogation when we went on business trips, but that's a rule, more of an exception.. When you take a pickup truck loaded with a generator, spools of wiring, electrodes, transmitters and receivers and you say you're going on business, that's bound to raise a few eyebrows. In every case, they'd ask us the same questions, we'd answer them and they'd send us on our way after 30-60min.
I was a recipient of a detailed luggage search and patdown at the Miami airport (and I was only connecting).. However, having been to a farming community (thus exposed to diesel fuel and fertilizer, as explained by the DHS supervisor who was doing the patdown), I did set off some bells and whistles from some monstrosity manufactured by GE. The supervisor was very professional, but his underling would lose a mental match against a turnip. While I was glad he was handling the case, after seeing the underling in action, I've avoided any unnecessary travel to/through/over the U.S. In any case after they've learned that I'm not a "terrorizer" (along with learning the layout of my genitalia), they let me get back to Canada.
At our airports, the only times I've been set aside was when I'd declare more booze or tobacco than I'm allowed to. They'd just scan my luggage and send me on my merry way.