Family arrive from Australia

Paula, Bridget and Daniel were due to arrive from Australia in the early afternoon. I arranged to get the afternoon off, removed one of the seats from the van so that I would be able to load all their bags, and lefft for the airport. I arrived at about 1:40 pm. Their plane was due to arrive at 1:45 pm, but the plane had arrived about 25 minutes earlier.

I knew that they had to go through Customs and Immigration because they had to get Canadian visas and papers for permission to work and study. When I had come through 7 weeks earlier it had taken me about an hour, so I expected a wait.

After two and a half hours I decided that I should try and find out whether they had actually made their connection in LA. They had about three hours to clear US Customs in LA and catch their Air Canada flight to Vancouver. They had no way of contacting me even if they had landed. Air Canada were unable to tell me if they were actually on the plane, or not. I went back down to the arrivals hall and waited for another 30 minutes before trying to find someone from Customs and Border Patrol. I was advised that they were busy today and that a wait of 2 1/2 - 3 hours would not be out of the question. Back to the arrivals hall and to find some more travel brochures to pass the time away.

After waiting four hours I again went to another Air Canada desk and explained the situation. I was again advised that they couldn't give me any information but this lady suggested that it was an unusually long time and took me to the airport information desk. Here I was advised that i could contact the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) because they were the only people who could actually access the information as to who was on a particular flight. As I was about to leave and head to the RCMP the lady behind the desk spotted a senior airport official who suggested that I try Air Canada information desk at the other end of the terminal. Ten minutes later I was at the information desk. The attendant said that she had been through the area about half an hour earlier and that it was not particularly busy. She did some checking on her computer and suggested that she might take a walk through the secondary Customs and Immigration area. This at least suggested that they had at least made the connecting flight and should be in Vancouver.

How could I have missed them? Where would they have gone if I had missed them? Had they been detained but the Customs and Immigration for some reason?

I walked back to the arrivals hall with this lady, described Paula and the kids, and showed her a family photograph which was a few years old. I must get a more recent one to carry around. She asked me to wait and disappeared through the security doors. About ten minutes later she returned to say that she had found them. Paula had her paperwork and the kids were currently being processed and would be out shortly.

About twenty minutes later they appeared with three trolleys loaded with bags and coats. they went on to explain that they had been in the queue for Immigration and Visas for about three hours. They had met people from the Phillipines, Brazil and various other places. They had all shared their life histories and everyone knew of the horror of the bushfires in Australia.

By the time I left the airport I had been there for five hours. I can understand how people could get frustrated and uptight - especially not being able to get any information from anyone. There has been a Coroner's Inquest into the death of a Polish man, who died after being Tasered by the RCMP, when he was upset and frustrated during an incident last year.

We headed for the carpark and I was glad that I had removed one of the seats because it would have been a bit of a squeeze otherwise. On the way home, about 30 km from the airport, they proceeded to tell me that they had been chosen for extra security checks all along the way - on leaving Melbourne and in LA. They had no time to get anything to eat in LA, and had no Canadian money to purchase any food on the Air Canada flight from LA to Vancouver. They did have a nice flight attendant who had given them some snacks. So they were tired and hungry and just wanted to get to a shower and bed. I think they all fell asleep in the car.

We unloaded the bags and they proceeded to explore the house and decide who was having which bedroom.

They were all still asleep when I left for work the next morning.