US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA940

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000940 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAN, INL 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR HOMELAND SECURITY COUNCIL 
 
DHS OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (OpticanMarmaud) 
 
CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (Bonner) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, ELTN, ASEC, CA, PTBS, Border Patrol, CBSA, CEUDA, RCMP, IBET, Anne McLellan, Zaccardelli 
SUBJECT: Canadian Customs Officers argue to create Border 
Patrol 
 
1. Summary. According to the President of Canada's Customs 
and Excise Union, Canada needs an armed "Border Patrol" to 
make the border between official ports of entry (POEs) less 
porous. The President of the Union appeared on March 22 
before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on 
Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency 
Preparedness in an attempt to influence the Committee as it 
reviews the closure of RCMP detachments throughout the 
country.  The Union has sought support for the idea from 
Governors of U.S. Border States. The Deputy Prime Minister, 
who has Ministerial responsibility for CBSA, as well as the 
President of CBSA are opposed to the idea; it will be very 
tough battle to convince the government to actually create a 
force of armed CBSA border patrol agents. End summary. 
 
2. The union (Customs and Excise Union Douanes Accise or 
CEUDA), which represents Canada's 5000 Customs Officers 
(including front line uniformed officers, Investigation, 
Intelligence and Trade Customs officers), has begun an all- 
out effort to highlight the security deficiencies along the 
Canada-U.S. border, and gain support for a Canadian Border 
Patrol.  The March 22 appearance before the House of Commons 
Committee was preceded earlier in March by letters to 
Provincial Ministers of Public Safety of each Canadian 
province, and to the Governors of American states adjacent 
to the northern border. 
 
 
3. The letters to the Governors emphasize that Canada 
Customs officers only have jurisdiction at POEs; they do not 
work along the border between POEs as do the U.S. Border 
Patrol.  The responsibility to combat the illegal entry of 
goods and people along the border belongs to the RCMP, a 
responsibility that was transferred from Customs to the RCMP 
in the 1930's.  The letter from CEUDA notes, however, that 
the ability of the RCMP to perform this task has almost 
completely eroded: the RCMP recently closed nine RCMP 
detachments in communities along the border in Quebec 
province, which, CEDUA maintains, has exacerbated "a border 
security crisis in Canada." CEUDA also argues in its letter 
that while the RCMP plays a very active role in the 
Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBET), the IBETs are 
intelligence-driven, not field driven which "means Canada 
essentially dedicates no resources to act as its eyes and 
ears on the ground at the border."  The letter finally asks, 
plaintively, "should you agree to support CEUDA in our 
bid... kindly notify us in writing." 
 
4. The CEUDA charm offensive has included alarming 
statistics suggesting that the Deputy Prime Minister and 
other senior GoC officials are sugar-coating the facts with 
respect to border intrusions to support the GoC's firm 
position of no firearms for Customs officers and its 
argument that the RCMP has an adequate border presence. 
 
5. In her February 1, 2005, testimony to the House of 
Commons Sub-Committee on Public Safety and National 
Security, Deputy Prime Minister McLellan said that in the 
past year a mere 18 vehicles were known to have driven 
through the Lacolle, Quebec border station.  In reality, 
CEUDA counters, their members counted no less than 17 
vehicles during a three week period in the month of December 
2004 alone at Lacolle; at five British Columbia border 
crossings, 26 vehicles "blew" by the Customs officers 
without stopping during the week of February 7, 2005 alone. 
And CEUDA claims that officials of the City of Stanstead, 
Qubec, have informed them that the count is consistently 
well over 250 unidentified vehicles illegally entering 
Canada each month by using two unguarded roads near the 
town. CEUDA says, furthermore, that they are aware that CBSA 
has over 1,600 vehicles documented as entering Canada in 
2004 and failing to report to Customs. 
 
6. CEUDA argues that with an armed Border Patrol these 
border runners could be pursued and apprehended.  Currently 
local police are expected to fulfil that function, but in 
his March 22 testimony to the House of Commons Committee, 
CEUDA President Ron Moran noted that "(Customs officers) 
have stopped bothering to call police to intervene and catch 
vehicles illegally entering Canada because police 
interventions simply don't happen, they don't exist anymore. 
Police openly admit they don't have the resources to deal 
with border runners." 
 
7. If accurate, these facts suggest an unfortunate state of 
 
affairs for Canada; indeed, RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli 
told the Committee members on Dec 9, 2004, that, while the 
RCMP has the mandate to patrol the border between ports of 
entry, the RCMP does not have enough resources to keep 
detachments open and actively patrol the border in Quebec 
(or many other areas for that matter).  And, according to 
CEUDA, in Qubec and Ontario, neither the Qubec Provincial 
Police nor the Ontario Provincial Police have the mandate or 
jurisdiction to enforce border security and have in fact 
pulled resources away from the border. 
8. That being said, the firm GoC position is to not arm 
Customs Officers; and there is no evidence the GoC would 
support creation of a CBSA Border Patrol to replace or 
supplant the RCMP role, even though the administrative 
hurdles would appear modest since Customs Officers are 
already "Peace officers" under the Criminal Code of Canada 
and have full powers of arrest when performing any duty in 
n 
the administration of the Customs Act, the Excise Act or the 
Excise Act, 2001.  Post will continue to examine and explore 
this issue and will report any expressions of support for a 
Canadian Border Patrol from U.S. Governors. 
 
Dickson