(Globe & Mail)
The union representing
Canada's border guards [CEUDA] is urging the federal government to establish an armed border patrol to fill what it says are egregious security gaps at hundreds of unguarded Canada-U.S. border crossings.
In a speech to be delivered before the Commons justice committee, Ron Moran, head of the Customs Excise Union, chastises Public Security Minister Anne McLellan for understating the frequency with which
vehicles drive through border crossings without first passing through customs.
Last month, Ms. McLellan told a Commons subcommittee that Quebec's Lacolle border crossing -- the largest in Quebec, with
15 full-time customs officers -- had seen only 18 drivers "blow through" the border in a single year, Mr. Moran notes.
"In reality," the union leader says in the prepared text for
today's speech, "our members counted no less than 17 vehicles during a three-week period in the month of December alone."
Mr. Moran adds that such incidents are common at border posts
across Canada. During the week of Feb. 7 in British Columbia, customs officers at five crossings registered 26 illegal crossings, he says in the speech.
And in Stanstead, Que., customs officers
typically count 250 "unidentified vehicles" entering Canada each month using two unguarded roads nearby. "We're also aware that CBSA has over 1,600 vehicles documented as entering Canada in
2004 and failing to report to customs."
In an interview yesterday, Mr. Moran said the statistics, particularly at well-staffed crossings such as Lacolle, speak to "flagrant disrespect for
any form of authority that exists at the border."
Canadian customs officers are not armed. Nor are they allowed to pursue vehicles that "run" border posts. That duty falls to local
police forces, many of whom are strapped for resources and unable to respond in time to catch border runners, Mr. Moran said.
The best way to plug the gaps, he said, would be to establish an armed
border patrol, mandated to patrol "unofficial" border crossings, of which there are more than 200 across Canada. Existing customs offices at official ports of entry would serve as bases.
He
estimated the job could be done by 250 officers. Assuming an average salary of $50,000, plus benefits, the additional officers would cost taxpayers about $15-million a year, plus the cost of vehicles and
equipment.
A spokesman for Ms. McLellan immediately dismissed the idea, saying that, although Ottawa is plowing hundreds of millions of dollars into beefing up the border, "there's no plan to set
up an armed Canadian border patrol."
The union has taken its campaign to opposition MPs, and is urging border communities, provinces and U.S. states that skirt the border to take up the issue
with the federal government.
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