Border Insecurity-click on the Oct 31 CEUDA brief and read it all-

Pretending to protect Canadians instead of actually protecting them is like playing Russian roulette with their lives.


"1.20 The following are excepts from our submission:

1.21 Commissioner Zaccardelli told you on December 9 (2004) that, while the RCMP has the mandate to patrol the border between ports of entry, the RCMP does not have enough resources to keep Detachments open and actively patrol the border in Quebec (or anywhere else). In Québec and Ontario, neither the Québec Provincial Police nor the Ontario Provincial Police have the mandate or jurisdiction to enforce border security and have in fact pulled resources away from the border. Mayors from Québec’s border municipalities testified to this Committee about how they are facing serious problems related to border crime with no ability or resources to deal with them; we have no doubt other border Mayors from across Canada will echo that very same sentiment and we are in the progress of canvassing them all.

1.22 There is a huge border security crisis in Canada. The closure of the nine RCMP Detachments in Québec has simply brought the issue to the forefront and exacerbated that crisis. Further, grow ops and the cannabis trade are adding an additional layer of challenges to this crisis in that exporting cannabis across our border should be as much of a concern for us as it is for Americans who are dealing with its importation.

1.23 We recently read the February 1, 2005, testimony from the Deputy Prime Minister, as well as that of the President and Vice-President of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), to members of your Sub-Committee on Public Safety and National Security, as it related to the Sub-Committee's study of Bill C‑26 establishing the CBSA. We were flabbergasted and astounded at the slanted testimony, the extent to which it gave the wrong impression, and the degree to which efforts were undertaken to downplay the threat and illegal activity known to be taking place along the border.

1.24 In her testimony, the Deputy Prime Minister said a mere 18 vehicles were known to have blown the Lacolle border in one year, meaning their drivers did not stop to report to Customs but rather chose to proceed into the country illegally. In reality, our members documented no less than 17 vehicles during a three (3) week period in the month of December 2004 alone - you may have heard about it at the time since Radio-Canada television decided to report it in the news. At five (5) British Columbia border crossings, using another example, 26 vehicles blew by the ports without stopping during the week of February 7, 2005. According to city officials in Stanstead, Québec, the count is consistently well over 250 unidentified vehicles illegally entering Canada each month by using two (2) unguarded roads namely Leeball and Church Roads (that’s almost 60 a week). We’re also aware that in 2004, CBSA documented over 1,600 vehicles as entering Canada at border-crossings and failing to report to Canada Customs.

1.25 Senators, security is only as strong as the weakest link. Keep in mind then that absolutely no one is checking any of the hundreds of vehicles and their passengers and/or contents that illegally enter Canada via unguarded roads every week. That’s hundreds, every week!
1.57 Canada Customs knows the distance of police detachments to only 114 of these sites. How can the CBSA President continue to publicly say police response times to calls from Customs are adequate when CBSA doesn’t even know the distance of police detachments to more than 90% of the sites serviced by Customs? We have put in an ATIP request asking what police response times were for calls by CBSA and we continue to wait for a response. Calls to our National Office from ATIP staff at CBSA seeking details about our request lead us to believe CBSA does not record police response times across Canada when calls are made by Customs seeking police assistance.

1.65 If IBETs were the solution to border enforcement in lieu of having RCMP Detachments along the border, or in lieu of an armed Customs Border Patrol, then shouldn’t the Americans be dismantling their Border Patrol instead of continuing to staff their now more than 1,000 strong Border Patrol force along the Canadian border? Does Commissioner Zaccardelli know something our American partners don’t?

1.66 Senators, there is a great lack of law enforcement along our border with the U.S. today. It exists at points-of-entry for many reasons, some of which you delved into and reported on in your June 2005 report but most notably because of the sheer and overwhelming absence of any personnel whatsoever dedicated to enforcing our border between points-of-entry. It is nothing short of shocking that security at our border has become so ill managed and that managers have been allowed to so poorly set priorities about what needs or doesn’t need to be done.

1.79 On a broader note, we wish to take this opportunity to restate the need for senior CBSA officials to provide nothing short of completely accurate information when presenting information to Parliamentary Committees and advice to elected officials, especially the Minister to whom they report. This means officials should refrain from making up answers to downplay questions about problems in border enforcement, especially when information in keeping with those answers does not exist. No one wins when the truth is obscured, especially when we are talking about issues that prohibit provision of duty of care by senior government officials toward Front-Line Customs Officers."