CANADA-MEXICO SECURITY DIALOGUE SHARES BEST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000265 SIPDIS DHS FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/02/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV KCRM KJUS KCOR SNAR MX CA SUBJECT: CANADA-MEXICO SECURITY DIALOGUE SHARES BEST PRACTICES REF: A. OTTAWA 134 ¶B. OTTAWA 263 Classified By: PolMinCouns Scott Bellard, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Canada's and Mexico's bilateral security working group, established in February 2007, focuses on increasing cooperation and information exchange in the areas of migration, emergency management, marine security, and law enforcement. Public Safety Canada and Mexico's Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN) lead the process for their respective governments. Canadian officials characterize the working group as a "modest initial step that is practical, focused, and results oriented." END SUMMARY. WORKING GROUP -------------- ¶2. (C) FOUR CORE AREAS: Canada and Mexico established their bilateral security working group in February 2007 as a deliverable for then-Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's visit to Mexico, according to Department of Public Safety Canada Director General for International Affairs Artur Wilczynski. He explained to Deputy Pol/C and DHS attache on March 31 that Deputy Minister of Public Safety Suzanne Hurtubise and CISEN Director Guillermo Valdes had agreed on the terms of reference for the group in a subsequent visit in 2007, and completed a work plan focused on "practical initiatives" in migration, emergency management, maritime security, and law enforcement. Public Safety Canada Assistant Deputy Minister (under secretary equivalent) for Strategic Policy Kristin Namiesniowski is the senior Canadian official involved now, with CISEN's Director General for International Affairs Alejandro Hope as her Mexican counterpart. During a visit by a Canadian inter-agency delegation (ref b),the two sides discussed improving the operation of the working group through a more formal structure, including annual meetings to measure progress on the work plan and to provide strategic guidance for experts, according to Wilczynski. Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade interlocutors separately (ref a) characterized the working group as a "modest initial step that is practical, focused, and results oriented." PROGRESS ON WORK PLAN -------------- ¶3. (C) MIGRATION: Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Mexican Interior Ministry's Subsecretariat for Population and Religious Affairs agreed in August 2008 to begin working on two joint threat assessments on the "flow of high risk nationals in North America" and "Mexicans requesting refugee status in Canada." The terms of reference for these assessments focus on explaining the underlying factors promoting illegal immigration, gathering better data on Mexican refugee claimants in Canada, and exploring the role of human trafficking in Mexican migration to Canada. In October 2007, CBSA had hosted representatives from CISEN at Canada's National Risk Assessment Centre (NRAC) to discuss Canada's approach to risk assessment in managing migration to Canada. CBSA also shared information on NRAC's information technology infrastructure to support Mexico as it constructs its own system. ¶4. (C) EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Public Safety Canada's Critical Infrastructure Protection Division and SEMAR-COPROCIE are currently planning an initial assessment visit to the Sonda de Campeche in the southern Gulf of Mexico to offshore crude oil and natural gas extraction platforms to determine the Qoil and natural gas extraction platforms to determine the feasibility and terms of reference for a critical infrastructure protection exercise. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) provided CISEN officials with a copy of the RCMP's Chemical, Biological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) data base in July 2008 as an initial step in data sharing and to set the stage for further CBRNE cooperation. ¶5. (C) MARINE SECURITY: Transport Canada and SEMAR are in the midst of a bilateral port facilities visit initiative to exchange best practices and lessons learned in implementing port and marine security measures to meet International Maritime Organization standards. In October 2008, Canada had hosted a Mexican delegation's visit to the Port of Montreal. The two sides agreed that the Mexicans would reciprocate with a visit by a Canadian delegation to the Port of Manzanillo sometime during 2009. In October 2007, forty Mexican Customs officials had participated in a five-day course given by the OTTAWA 00000265 002 OF 002 Canadians on "vessel rummage" and "container contraband examination," which also included "train the trainer" sessions. ¶6. (C) LAW ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION: The RCMP and the Public Service Secretariat (SFP) as well as CISEN are currently discussing a comprehensive law enforcement cooperation memorandum of understanding that will govern the relationship between the federal police services of the two countries. The RCMP and the SFP have also undertaken to exchange national police training curricula to identify future training opportunities. The two sides believe that the following areas show promise for further training collaboration: criminal intelligence; crime scene investigation; suspect assessment; document fraud; basic techniques of criminal investigation; interviewing; and, interrogation. RCMP and CISEN are developing an intelligence exchange protocol to combat drug trafficking. The protocol's terms of reference focus on describing the organization of drug cartels, mapping smuggling routes, and identifying transit points. The RCMP and SFP are discussing common interests, with an eye toward establishing a common work program to combat organized crime and money laundering. In February 2008, RCMP experts conducted a seminar on combating organized crime through seizing profits derived from criminal activity at the Academia Superior de Seguridad Publica in central Mexico. In April 2008 in Mexico City, RCMP officers presented a module on police training best practices during the International Symposium for Police and Public Security. Visit Canada,s North American partnership community at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / BREESE