Thread: Arming border guards could take 10 years,

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Thursday » June 22 » 2006

Arming border guards could take 10 years, Day says

Tim Naumetz
CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen


Thursday, June 22, 2006



Passenger and commercial traffic crosses the Ambassador Bridge the connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, Friday, March 24. (AP/Paul Sancya)

OTTAWA - It could take up to a decade to fully train and equip all of Canada's border guards with sidearms, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Wednesday.

The timetable surprised even Conservative MPs when Day told a Commons committee that training and arming the roughly 3,000 officers was more complex than expected.

"The entire process could take eight to 10 years," Day said in response to questions from Conservative MP David MacKenzie, a former police chief.

"It's a lot more than `here's how to hold a firearm, aim and shoot,"' Day told the MPs who are conducting a statutory review of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

"They have to be fully apprised of all of the legal ramifications that go with carrying a sidearm," he said. "We hope that it would never have to be used, but its use in a place as populated as a border port would require extensive training."

Day reiterated that the government expects to begin placing armed and trained guards at border crossing by next year and said the timetable for completion of the plan is in line with the experience of other countries.

Armed border guards were a key part of the Conservative party's campaign platform for the January election. The commitment is also central to the government's overall anti-terrorism strategy and its plan to improve relations with the U.S

The May budget included $101 million over the next two years to begin arming the guards and start hiring an additional 300 guards to eliminate "work-alone" posts at small, isolated border locations across the country.

MacKenzie said later he was "somewhat" surprised by the timetable and Conservative MP Gord Brown, who has two border points in his Ontario riding, said he had not expected the process to take nearly a decade.

"I would hope that it would happen much faster than that," said Brown. "I know the minister said he hoped he would have border service agents armed and trained by next year, so I think that is more in tune with the timeline the Customs and Excuse Union and the Border Services Agency was looking to."

Liberal MP Derek Lee said the delays should have been expected, since none of Canada's current border guards was hired through a recruitment process that required the legal knowledge or even physical capabilities that are standard for armed police officers.

"There may be employees unsuited for possessing firearms," said Lee.

Day and Justice Minister Vic Toews urged the committee to recommend the continuation of the Anti-Terrorist Act, passed soon after the 2001 attacks in the United States.

"The threat environment has not diminished, as you know," Day told the committee.

Toews advised the MPs to consider expanding their review to include the relationship between terrorism and organized crime groups and suggested they also consider narrowing the definition of terrorism.

Ottawa Citizen

© CanWest News Service 2006








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There are a lot of automatic weapons, seized from drug dealers, which are sitting in police custody, waiting to be destroyed.
Start passing them out!

Dixie