Canadian Customs Officers argue to create Border

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000940

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CAN, INL

WHITE HOUSE FOR HOMELAND SECURITY COUNCIL

DHS OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (OpticanMarmaud)

CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (Bonner)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ELTN ASEC CA PTBS CBSA CEUDA RCMP IBET
SUBJECT: Canadian Customs Officers argue to create Border
Patrol


1. Summary. According to the President of Canada's Customs
and Excise Union, Canada needs an armed "Border Patrol" to
make the border between official ports of entry (POEs) less
porous. The President of the Union appeared on March 22
before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on
Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency
Preparedness in an attempt to influence the Committee as it
reviews the closure of RCMP detachments throughout the
country. The Union has sought support for the idea from
Governors of U.S. Border States. The Deputy Prime Minister,
who has Ministerial responsibility for CBSA, as well as the
President of CBSA are opposed to the idea; it will be very
tough battle to convince the government to actually create a
force of armed CBSA border patrol agents. End summary.


2. The union (Customs and Excise Union Douanes Accise or
CEUDA),which represents Canada's 5000 Customs Officers
(including front line uniformed officers, Investigation,
Intelligence and Trade Customs officers),has begun an all-
out effort to highlight the security deficiencies along the
Canada-U.S. border, and gain support for a Canadian Border
Patrol. The March 22 appearance before the House of Commons
Committee was preceded earlier in March by letters to
Provincial Ministers of Public Safety of each Canadian
province, and to the Governors of American states adjacent
to the northern border.



3. The letters to the Governors emphasize that Canada
Customs officers only have jurisdiction at POEs; they do not
work along the border between POEs as do the U.S. Border
Patrol. The responsibility to combat the illegal entry of
goods and people along the border belongs to the RCMP, a
responsibility that was transferred from Customs to the RCMP
in the 1930's. The letter from CEUDA notes, however, that
the ability of the RCMP to perform this task has almost
completely eroded: the RCMP recently closed nine RCMP
detachments in communities along the border in Quebec
province, which, CEDUA maintains, has exacerbated "a border
security crisis in Canada." CEUDA also argues in its letter
that while the RCMP plays a very active role in the
Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBET),the IBETs are
intelligence-driven, not field driven which "means Canada
essentially dedicates no resources to act as its eyes and
ears on the ground at the border." The letter finally asks,
plaintively, "should you agree to support CEUDA in our
bid... kindly notify us in writing."


4. The CEUDA charm offensive has included alarming
statistics suggesting that the Deputy Prime Minister and
other senior GoC officials are sugar-coating the facts with
respect to border intrusions to support the GoC's firm
position of no firearms for Customs officers and its
argument that the RCMP has an adequate border presence.


5. In her February 1, 2005, testimony to the House of
Commons Sub-Committee on Public Safety and National
Security, Deputy Prime Minister McLellan said that in the
past year a mere 18 vehicles were known to have driven
through the Lacolle, Quebec border station. In reality,
CEUDA counters, their members counted no less than 17
vehicles during a three week period in the month of December
2004 alone at Lacolle; at five British Columbia border
crossings, 26 vehicles "blew" by the Customs officers
without stopping during the week of February 7, 2005 alone.
And CEUDA claims that officials of the City of Stanstead,
Qubec, have informed them that the count is consistently
well over 250 unidentified vehicles illegally entering
Canada each month by using two unguarded roads near the
town. CEUDA says, furthermore, that they are aware that CBSA
has over 1,600 vehicles documented as entering Canada in
2004 and failing to report to Customs.


6. CEUDA argues that with an armed Border Patrol these
border runners could be pursued and apprehended. Currently
local police are expected to fulfil that function, but in
his March 22 testimony to the House of Commons Committee,
CEUDA President Ron Moran noted that "(Customs officers)
have stopped bothering to call police to intervene and catch
vehicles illegally entering Canada because police
interventions simply don't happen, they don't exist anymore.
Police openly admit they don't have the resources to deal
with border runners."


7. If accurate, these facts suggest an unfortunate state of

affairs for Canada; indeed, RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli
told the Committee members on Dec 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 many other areas for that matter). And, according to
CEUDA, in Qubec and Ontario, neither the Qubec 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.

8. That being said, the firm GoC position is to not arm
Customs Officers; and there is no evidence the GoC would
support creation of a CBSA Border Patrol to replace or
supplant the RCMP role, even though the administrative
hurdles would appear modest since Customs Officers are
already "Peace officers" under the Criminal Code of Canada
and have full powers of arrest when performing any duty in
n
the administration of the Customs Act, the Excise Act or the
Excise Act, 2001. Post will continue to examine and explore
this issue and will report any expressions of support for a
Canadian Border Patrol from U.S. Governors.

Dickson