Today, Canada looks foolish, as the site of two men running for the border from the US caused Canadian border guards to flee for their lives:
American authorities closed the border crossing to British Columbia on Tuesday after an exchange of gunfire on the U.S. side between border guards, police and two murder suspects from California who were eventually apprehended.
The two men were pursued by American police in a high-speed chase along Interstate 5 in Washington state before the men ran the U.S. border crossing in an attempt to get into Canada.
An unspecified number of Canadian border agents, who are unarmed, left their posts during the incident because they were concerned about their safety. Managers took over and border security was not compromised, said Paula Shore, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency.
That last statement is nonsense. Guards left their posts. Of course security was compromised. If security weren't compromised by the absence of the guards, the guards would not be needed. It's basic logic. That other people stepped in means other important work related to the borders was not being done.
You know I hate that sort of doubletalk.
Bottom line: reliable staff on duty at guard posts is essential to border security. No bureaucratic palliative can change that fact.
The incoming government is responding:
The Conservative justice critic says the party will stand behind its promise to give Canada's border guards guns, a day after two murder suspects from California made a run for the border before they were stopped in a shootout.
"I think it does nothing for our national image. I find it very disturbing that our officers felt compelled to leave because of this threat to their personal safety," [former justice critic Vic Toews] said from his Manitoba riding of Provencher.
"I understand their concerns very well and don't fault them. What surprises me is that the former government refused to properly equip our officers."
Well, if you read my blog, you'd know that the government paid for a study on risks faced by border guards. A draft of that report recommended that the guards be armed, judging their job to be sufficiently risky. The union representing the border guards supports the idea of arming guards.
The union, however, was never given the chance to support this report, written in 2002, and the recommendations it made. Why? Because they never saw it.
The Liberal governments under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin altered the recommendations of that report, and suppressed other similar recommendations. The government consistently presented to the guards' union, to Parliament, and to the Canadian people whose physical security is impacted by the integrity of the borders, a simple bald-faced lie: that Canada's border guards did not need to be armed, and that no legitimate analysis of their job suggests otherwise.
Here's a quick summary:
Evidence uncovered and reported in the Northgate Report relating to Customs Service conduct includes:
- Further confirmation that the ModuSpec report had been altered by removing the recommendation for an armed presence at the border;
- Suppression of three separate reports (2 from CCRA and 1 from Audit Canada) recommending the arming of Customs Officers;
- Withholding relevant reports from HRSDC Labour Officers who were investigating work refusals by Customs Officers;
- Providing inaccurate information to Parliamentarians in Committee; and
- Ordering the destruction of a report which compiled threats and harm to Customs Officers without authority or justification for doing so.
If the Conservatives are wondering where to start investigating the shameful behaviour of the previous Liberal governments, they could do worse than starting here. Not only is it timely and fresh, it sends the right message to the US that Canada is serious about border controls. Nice way to make nice with the US without diving into the politically more complex issues of Iraq or ballistic missile defense.
(via Bourque)
