Having traveled by air numerous times in my native Canada as well as between Canada and the US, I feel confident in saying that this is an isolated incident. Every time I’ve gone through security on both domestic and international flights, the CATSA agents have been a lot nicer and practical than their American counterparts. This includes traveling into the US because airport security is still handled through CATSA, the DHS only handles customs. This has the odd effect of creating more security for me going back to Canada than there is to enter the US. That said, I think I’ve encountered TSA enough times that I can say I don’t feel comfortable at all whenever I go through US airport security, whereas in Canada they’ve been as quick and noninvasive as they can. In several airports I haven’t even had to take off my shoes!

Basically what I’m saying is that, with the TSA I felt that their invasive screening procedures are standard across the board and the staff are under-trained and incompetent whereas with CATSA that was most likely an isolated incident. We’ll see if CATSA management rectifies this (even in Canada, I wouldn’t hold my breath) but even if they don’t, I still have confidence in the average CATSA agent, something that I cannot give to TSA.