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On Saturday night, I landed at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, returning home from Orlando, Fla., after a 10-day holiday. (Impeccable timing, yes.) I was expecting long lines, chaotic crowds and detailed questions. Instead, my family and I had the fastest, most pain-free customs experience of our lives. It took us six minutes and 16 seconds to go from the back of the line to the baggage claim area.

This all seems a bit relaxed for the midst of a rapidly spreading deadly pandemic, no?

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A smooth customs experience would normally be a good way to end a trip. And certainly no one wants to see the kind of problems seen of late at U.S. airports, with massive crowds packed into tight spaces for hours on end. But as Canada prepares to be hit by the COVID pandemic that is raging in Europe and likely so in the U.S., the screening at our border entry points is coming under intense, necessary scrutiny.