Border Insecurity: Canada Border Services Agency Presents Briefing Paper to Senate Committee -- No Guns-Get Vests, Pepper Spray & Batons -- & -- More

Where did the $ 8 billion for security go?

[A] briefing paper presented on Thursday to Senator Colin Kenny, chairman of the committee, by the Customs Excise Union

The union says the recommendation was removed from the report before its release.

"Search: recommendation" -- from the above line in the following. Incredible! Where did that $8-BILLION go?

Trouble at border: Customs agents warn Senate that security gaps are 'critical' April 11, 2005, Adrian Humphreys, National Post

Gaps in Canada's border security are so severe that an airport accepts international passengers without on-site immigration checks, a marine border unit has no boat, a computer glitch systematically hides information about terrorists and officers at 62 border crossings are unable to link to a computer to screen incoming travellers.

These are among dozens of security problems documented by front-line border agents and presented behind closed doors to the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence.

Canada's border shortcomings include 225 unguarded cross- border roads; long distances between unarmed border agents and police detachments; the freeing of drunk drivers stopped at major border sites because they are not tested by police quickly enough; and large drug, weapons and cash seizures stored without any armed guards, the officers say. [. . . . ]

An independent job hazard analysis, done in 2002 for CBSA management, called for an armed police presence at six of the busiest land border crossings and in some airport search areas, the dossier says.

The six land sites named in that report are Ontario's Windsor Tunnel, Windsor Bridge, Peace Bridge and Bluewater Bridge; Pacific Highway in B.C.; and at Lacolle, Que. The union says the recommendation was removed from the report before its release.

The union says CBSA agents should be armed for border security and officer safety. The government has previously refused them guns but issued protective vests, pepper spray and batons.

Search:

Deer Lake airport, on the Trans-Canada Highway in western Newfoundland
- Water but no boat -- The Customs Marine Verification Team in Gananoque, Ont
- Paper agents -- no computer access
- Computer glitches -- CBSA database has problems
- Drunk drivers go free
- No firepower

This is a lengthy article -- a must read. The National Post has done an excellent job on the border problems. NJC





Border -- PALS: Primary Automated Lookout System

Computer glitch raises border safety concerns -- Violent offenders not flagged Adrian Humphreys, National Post, Apr. 12, 05

Border agents in booths on the primary inspection lines use a computer system called PALS to check travellers.

However, PALS has the ability to display only a single "hit" for each person, regardless of how many entries are registered against a traveller, the union's dossier says.

Moreover, only the most recent entry in the system is displayed to the agent handling the incoming traveller.

Because the system from which PALS draws its data is completely refreshed each day by linking to Canada's Immigration database, the same immigration entry is always considered the most recent entry -- and is the only one seen by agents -- no matter how old that information is or how important other entries might be to national security or an officer's safety.

"PALS will only return [an immigration] hit to the officer on the primary inspection line with absolutely no other information, including no warning that the person is ... known to be armed and extremely dangerous," the dossier says. [. . . . ]

Did this agency get its computers in the same way as did the DND? I think that story is the one involving Paul Champagne and his wife. Have they returned from the Turks and Caicos? They were living in luxury there, the last I heard.




Poorly trained students compromising safety, customs officials warn Adrian Humphreys, National Post, April 11, 2005

Despite increased attention to border security, the number of front-line border agents has not grown in 10 years, according to the Customs Excise Union. In 2004, just as in 1994, there were the equivalent of almost 3,400 full-time officers in uniform. In the summer months, however, up to a half of the people staffing border points are students with two to three weeks of on-site training, the union's border security dossier says. Some students work alone or are supervised peripherally -- sometimes by having a supervisor available by phone, the union says. [. . . . ]