Rights of Canadian Immigration Officers

My guess is they/she did have that right as Immigration have sweeping powers over people being processed. As for the images on your camera, I would say that if they were sensitive one should email them before travelling and delete the memory card.

Answer is yes. They have the right. They can read every letter in your personal journal, examine any tourist brochure, admission ticket, look through every picture, video, document, etc on your computer. But they can't seize it unless it contravenes the law. They can even tear your car apart at a land border crossing and not put it back together again if they can justify it.(suspecting drugs, etc) They can seize images they deem to be indecent although they have to be able to defend the action in court.

Returning from Thailand in general is going to put anyone single, but especially men under secondary inspection or at least increases the likelihood of it happening. This has been going on for 20 years. They consider Thailand to be a 'drug country' and a potential location for pedophiles to travel. (even though the vast majority of single male travellers to Thailand are not drug smugglers or pedophiles.) Returning with carryon only increases the chances they will pull you aside. It seems to only happen on direct flights from Thailand. For instance if you spent exactly the same amount of time in Thailand, but then went to India for a couple of weeks and came back direct from there, chances are you wouldn't go through the same secondary inspection.

If you feel that this is happening to you 'every' time you come back, you can ask for a supervisor or manager and voice a complaint. I'm not sure that anything happens if you do this other than that your time in secondary inspection is prolonged even further.

There are other levels of inspection that involve nudity and rubber gloves, so although you might think looking at the pictures on your camera is an invasion, it can get worse. Just remember that this customs inspector (or whatever they call themselves these days) is nobody you know, and probably doesn't care 2 craps about what's on your camera as long as it doesn't breach the law.

They've gone through my bags on almost every return visit from Thailand, reading with interest my tourist brochures, examining personal toiletry items and asking questions. One thing they have yet to go through is two or three day old damp swimwear that I didn't have time to dry out before travelling.

I know they have to ask "why do you go to Thailand so often", but I always wonder what do they think people are going to say? Because I need to pick up a heroin shipment every 18 months?

with the new high profile cases of sex abuse in S/E Asia, the answer to your question should be obvious.
you may have fit the 'suspect' profile. and of course lots of the abuse is recorded, thus the check of your digiitals.

A few years ago I flew into Toronto from Frankfurt and the immigration guy asked me several times if I had any cheese. I kept answering that I had some chocolate, but no cheese. He just kept asking for cheese. My solution has been to fly into anywhere but Toronto. The immigration people in other cities seem a little more reasonable.

Thanks for the replies. Well, except for the one about the boys.
I guess as a single male going to Thailand I MUST be a sex offender. As I said, there was nothing in my camera of interest. It just seems to me that this is a system that is open to abuse. I came imagine some of the immigration officers just having a look at what's on peoples camera because of the voyeur factor.

just had an interesting experience coming back from cuba.

I just got a new 48 page passport (in anticipation of a big round the world trip) i've used it a couple of times to go to new york and montreal but this was the first international trip so it doesn't yet have any stamps.

Coming back into toronto, the immigration officer wanted to know what i do for a living (writer) and why i had a big passport. I said I plan to travel a lot. No harm no foul. But I found it odd that they would ask why I had a big passport.

that's all.

I always try to avoid female imigration/customs officials if possible. I don't know why, but it always seems 10x the hassle. Just my personal experience.

you only have to answer direct questions (eg Which countries did you visit? what do you do for a living, etc) not vague, rhetorical questions (eg " it must be nice to travel so much", or "why do you go to Thailand so much?") these I reply to with a shrug of my shoulders because there is no answer.

I always try to answer in the least number of words.

You must be a little confused OP, since when you speak to the Immigration officer, you have not yet gotten your luggage, and he or she would not look at it in any case........
Either the Immigration person smelled something wrong about you and flagged your card for initial Customs inspection or you were picked randomly.
If you then got a secodnary inspection, it was probably the former.

"You must be a little confused OP, since when you speak to the Immigration officer, you have not yet gotten your luggage"

I think he made it clear in the second sentence of his post there was no luggage apart from one carry-on.