Empty Holsters Cause Conflict In Canada

Border guards across Canada say their lives are at risk because the federal government is refusing to allow them to carry firearms on joint operations with other police forces. Customs officers, expert in searching for drugs and other contraband, want to carry their guns when helping police forces on raids outside ports, airports or regular areas of border guard jurisdiction. But their bosses in Ottawa at the Canada Border Services Agency say they must go unarmed.

The dispute will come to a head in the next few weeks when the Occupational Health and Safety Tribunal of Canada will rule in the precedent-setting case of a Montreal border services employee, backed by his union, who lodged a complaint after refusing to take part in a joint operation with Montreal city police. If he wins, all joint operations across Canada, there are dozens a year, are likely to grind to a halt.

More than half of the border service officers, intelligence officers and investigators working out of the Windsor area are trained to carry firearms, according to Jason McMichael, national vice-president of the Customs and Immigration Union.

Ron Moran, president of the Customs and Immigration Union representing Canada’s 4,800 border guards, said there is no rationale for sending firearm-trained guards into dangerous situations without their weapons. “These people are well-trained and firearms are an integral part of that training,” he said. “If there is a confrontation they have only a fraction of a second to react. We call it empty holster syndrome and it’s dangerous.”

Border guards have worked, unarmed, on joint operations for decades. Commonly using sniffer dogs, the guards are often brought into high-risk joint operations to search for drugs imported by organized crime where police officers have been undercover and are in street clothes and the border guard is the only officer in uniform. The guards’ searching expertise makes them a valuable asset and there have been searches where CBSA guards and their dogs have uncovered caches of drugs, cash and diamonds that accompanying police officers have missed. “But the border guard, in uniform, is often the only identifiable officer in the room,” said Moran. “The uniform makes them a target.”

Participation in joint operation is voluntary, but many border guards are keen to do the work. “Our people want to participate,” added Moran. “They are like trained soldiers who want to be among the action. But they also want to be as safe as possible.”

The CBSA refused to discuss the issue with the Ottawa Citizen and would not give its reason for opposing its guards being armed on joint operations. Sources say, however, that the agency’s position is based on a legality and that it is taking the position that border guards are not police officers so should not adopt that role.

The union says the agency’s stance is in conflict with its political bosses. The government enthusiastically promoted the arming of border guards five years ago and pushed through the necessary legislation. Moran claims that senior CBSA bureaucrats in Ottawa were against arming its guards in the first place and their resistance to joint operation arming is their last stand. The CBSA issued an order a year ago telling guards they had to go unarmed into joint operations and that responsibility for their safety would rest with the accompanying police. Canada armed its first border guards three years ago after pressure from the union to be allowed to carry sidearms like their U.S. counterparts. The Harper government, citing security concerns, agreed and allocated $101 million to pay for ongoing weapons training, which in most cases is a three-week course. The first armed border guards were deployed in July 2007 in Surrey, B.C., and Fort Erie, Ont., and today, about 1,500 of the 4,800 guards are armed.

If the tribunal rules in favour of the guard and his union, which appears likely, the government could amend legislation or allow the RCMP and other police forces to appoint border guards as special constables for the duration of an operation.

Windsor Star