Thread: Canadian border guards carry on long campaign for arms

http://news.bellinghamherald.com/apps/p ... /602180329

Canadian border guards carry on long campaign for arms
Union expects new government to act



AUBREY COHEN
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD


Canadian border officers have walked away from their posts at least five times in the past month because of perceived danger and may continue to do so until the new government follows through with a pledge to arm them.

The walkoffs can mean big traffic backups while managers, sometimes brought in from other areas, take over inspection booths.

The Canadian Customs Excise Union has been campaigning for sidearms for years. Last month, after a Canada Border Services Agency study said officers did not need to be armed, the union released its own report saying officers should have guns.

Just after that, union officials said many officers wanted to walk off the job immediately, under their right to leave an unsafe situation. They didn't, but have since left their posts in response to lookouts for armed and dangerous suspects.

Officers may be taking safety more seriously since the union report and a Jan. 24 incident where two fleeing murder suspects barreled past U.S. officers at the Peace Arch Crossing before a Whatcom County Sheriff's deputy rammed their car just short of the border, union National Vice President George Scott said.

"They're kind of angry in a lot of cases," he said. "We've been asking for proper equipment for a number of years."

Officers walked off the job at the Peace Arch, truck and Sumas crossings for the Jan. 24 incident and on Feb. 10 after a report of an armed and dangerous suspect last seen driving north from Renton.

Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Paula Shore said officers have stayed at their posts despite armed and dangerous lookouts in the past, although she did not know if the circumstances of recent incidents were different.

The Canadian Conservative Party, which formed a minority government after parliamentary elections Jan. 23, has promised to arm officers. The Ottawa Citizen reported Friday that new Canadian Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Stockwell Day has asked for and received proposals to bring an armed presence to the border.

That could mean arming officers, having other police at crossings or a border patrol, Day told the paper. "There's a number of ways to do that, but the fact is we don't want border guards to feel they have to leave their posts because they feel unsafe."

Officers do not expect everyone to be armed right away, Scott said. "We just want a presence."

The spat could be about more than safety. The Windsor (Ontario) Star reported last month that arming officers would reclassify their jobs to a higher pay level.

Border officers do make less than law-enforcement colleagues, such as Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Vancouver Police, but that's a separate issue, Scott said. "We feel, regardless of being armed or not, we're underpaid."

Reach Aubrey Cohen at aubrey.cohen@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2289.

http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/ ... 7135032936

Saturday, February 18 2006 @ 10:39 AM MST

Stockwell Day wants U.S.-style armed border patrol
Contributed by: BC Mary

James Gordon, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006

OTTAWA -- Stockwell Day is considering a U.S.-style armed border patrol to stop "bad guys" getting into Canada.

The newly appointed Public Safety Minister has solicited proposals to bring an armed presence to the border. One of the ideas being considered is for a separate armed border patrol, Day said in an interview.

"The fact is we don't want border guards to feel they have to leave their posts because they feel unsafe," he said.

Last month, about 20 unarmed border officers fled from their posts at the Peace Arch border crossing after they learned that two U.S. murder suspects were headed their way.

The union representing Canada Border Services Agency staff has asked that its members be provided with sidearms.

Day, who spent Wednesday evening meeting with guards, said: "We want no access to the bad guys."