Highly doubt you are correct here. That would be a huge expense to the taxpayer and extremely slow if not impossible to isolate out all the living organisms in the soil sample. If it is soil then it HAS bacteria, fungi and nematodes for sure and possibly insect eggs, plant seeds etc etc etc. Many of those would be foreign to the Canadian ecosystem and pose a threat. Maybe the individual has the right to pay for a lab inspection...2) According to the law they must prove that not only is there soil, but that it has "alien species" in it, legally this requires sending a sample to a lab, something customs is refusing to do.
CBSA/CFIA shouldn't pass anything with any sign of soil contamination BUT you should be able to have the item washed in a certified facility, this proposed immediate export from the country in teh Calgary letter is flaky.
Its also common knowledge that for quite a while containers were not even being inspected in Vancouver, if somone new is on the job who hasn't given up on their job yet then I would expect more inspections and more failures as a result. Also note that the PSAC union members of CBSA are pissed about extremely slow contract negotiations with treasury board (PSAC has been without an agreement for over a year) and are taking 'job actions' such as highly increased full inspection of cargo and people to cause slow downs.
