http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/ ... 27934.html

February 6, 2006

Walkin' the line
By Bill Kaufmann

It really is the longest undefended border on earth.

That Canada's gunless border guards wish to be equipped with sidearms -- with a patience worthy of waiting for Godot -- is well known.

Less publicized are the other handcuffs worn by those same officers preventing them from securing the country's first line of defence.

Canadians would be less than thrilled to know a police computer data list containing the names of 33,742 red-flagged individuals -- criminals, fugitives, suspects, terrorists and the like -- isn't available to officers at the posts where public contact is first made at our border crossings.

But I stand corrected -- the names of 162 of the worst "lookouts" are provided to primary contact agents staffing the crossing booths, leaving a mere 33,580 of those names to secondary officers in a back room at the border.

That means the larger list will only come in handy if those primary officers are vigilant or lucky enough to make the right stop and refer the red flaggers to the secondary room.

Doing that without a gun, while those they stop could very well be armed, doesn't translate into job safety.

It's a situation that's led to a number of work refusals by officers armed only with batons and pepper spray.

It begs the obvious question: how many violent undesirables are entering our country literally under the noses of unsuspecting border service agents?

"What's intelligent about not giving intelligence to our officers in the front line?" asks Erik Lupien, spokesman for the Customs Excise Union representing 5,000 officers.

It's a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil philosophy the Canadian Border Service Agency wants to deepen by whittling down the list of 162, to discourage agents' refusals, says Lupien.

In a test run last summer, the FBI's 10 most wanted failed to appear on Canadian border agents' data bases, he said.

And the incident late last month at a crossing in Blaine, Wash., where Canadian officers stood down in the face of automatic weapons-toting border runners from the U.S. side, is far from the only case of emergency refusal.

Days later, reports that a young kidnapping suspect armed with an M-16 could be headed towards an Ontario crossing from Michigan had a similar effect, said Lupien.

Even if they'd stood their ground, their instructions are to allow the offenders through and call for police backup.

But in some sections along the vast, serpentine frontier strip, police can be hours away, says Lupien.

Nine police stations that could support their border brethren in Quebec were closed 11/2 years ago, he adds.

Unguarded roads crossing the international boundary number more than 200.

When the union complained about the lack of proper computer hookups in 45% of the 119 U.S.-Canada gateways, a dial-up system was supplied, said Lupien.

"The connections are so slow, they're useless," he says.

That, and the lack of intelligence, has prompted a number of embarrassing moments that at least ensure Canadian guards are on friendly terms with their U.S. counterparts.

"The guys call the U.S. customs across the border asking 'can you guys run this information through?' " says Lupien.

"The Americans go 'we know you have this intelligence problem, this is routine.' "

Lupien says U.S. authorities also came to the rescue in 2000, when their Canadian equivalents appeared to lobby Ottawa vainly for bulletproof vests.

Officers from New York State delivered a hoard of vests, ultimately shaming the feds into supplying them, he said.

To Canada's border officers, the episode is symbolic of the culture of neglect they toil under.

While our leaders speak of shoring up national sovereignty through increased military spending, those supposedly upholding it where the rubber hits the road go without.

We even talk of giving our transit officers sidearms.

A Canadian Border Service Agency spokeswoman had essentially nothing to say about the database shortcomings or officers' other concerns.

Officers are given the tools they need, are backed up by Mounties and their safety is our number one priority, was the rote response.

The incoming Tory government has pledged to supply firearms to our frontier sentinels and should be lauded for it.

But it's clear the rot goes far deeper than a lack of Glock pistols.