OTTAWA – Ron Moran, National President of the Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise, representing 10,500 members, more than 5,000 of whom are Border Services Officers that include Canada’s uniformed Officers working on the front¬lines, as well as the Investigation, Intelligence, and Trade Customs Officers, says, “We are very pleased with Mr. Harper’s proposals as they relate to border security. This represents the most serious and detailed plan to better enforce control at our border crossings and to give Canada’s Customs Officers the safety, powers and resources they need that we have seen from any political party.”
CEUDA has long called for the arming of Border Services Officers, as well as for the removal of students from the front-line, and for the doubling up of one person ports. Contrary to what some have said, gun violence in Toronto and in any other Canadian city is not an American problem, it is a Canadian problem and one of the key places to tackle this problem begins at our border, where it is critically necessary to empower the people Canadians depends on to prevent gun smuggling and to stop armed and dangerous persons from entering Canada. CEUDA agrees with statements by Peter McKay that it is “bordering on criminal negligence” on the part of CBSA to have a mere 162 armed and dangerous flags in the Customs lookout database compared to the more than 33,700 similar flags that exist in the Police lookout database. Moran adds, “To learn Ottawa has ordered a cull of the 162 to make the number smaller and avoid work refusals by Border Service Officers reflects an arrogant and reckless attitude for the lives of those Officers and the safety of Canadians.”
It can’t be underscored that CEUDA has also called for an Armed Customs Border Patrol in Canada, especially since closure of RCMP Detachments along the border have created nothing short of a border enforcement vacuum between border crossings and since police response times to calls for help by Customs are often dangerously slow, if a response even takes place, as was corroborated in the most recent report of the Auditor General of Canada.
Moran adds, “Anyone who’s followed this file over the past few years will note CEUDA commissioned the Northgate Group, led by Michel Juneau-Katsuya, to undertake an analysis of whether the Customs duties have inherent risks that warrant the issuing of firearms. CEUDA received Northgate’s nearly 200-page Report today and will make it public without alterations in the days ahead.”
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For more information:
Ron Moran, National President: cell - (613) 677-1090
Erik Lupien, Communications and Political Coordination Officer: (613) 723-8008
