Customs Officers protest against working ALONE
DECEMBER 07 News release ... Customs Officers from across British Columbia and Alberta, with the full support from their union – the Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise, and residents of the community, are joining forces today and gathering to protest at the Roosville, B.C., border crossing.

“Our members are protesting against Customs Officers being forced to work alone in Canada at 139 border crossings,” said Ron Moran, CEUDA National President.  “They’re protesting because Customs management refuses to alter its policy to ensure at least two Officers work together.  They’re also protesting the fact that safety and security complaints to Human Resources Development Canada haven’t yielded any positive changes – HRDC Investigators assess complaints for appearances’ sake yet clearly demonstrate they work based on predetermined conclusions.  Customs Officers have died and encountered severe dangers while working alone, with no end in sight.”

Most sites across Canada where Customs Officers work alone are situated in remote locations.  Moran adds, “CEUDA and its members have been fighting against this unacceptable situation for decades. Recent examples abound!”

On October 17, 2004, in the early morning hours, Customs Officer Adam Angel died while working alone at the Port of Roosville, B.C.  It’s hard not to imagine things might have been different had another Officer been scheduled to work on the same shift.

On November 16, 2004, a female Customs Officer was left to work alone throughout the evening at the Port of Rykerts, B.C., without a working communications device that would have enabled her to call for backup in case of emergency, and without access to a working computer that would have allowed her to search for lookouts on the Customs system – coincidentally, a lookout had been issued that night for a possible armed felon making his way to Canada on foot in the Rykerts area.  She worked alone for 5 hours in what can only be characterized as a dangerously high-risk situation.

The Canada Border Services Agency has a Working Alone Strategy that instructs Officers working alone to let hard-lined criminals into Canada then call police hoping they will intercept those criminals down the road.  Moran adds, “Why bother staffing 139 points of entry into this country if you’re only going to instruct those enforcing the border to ignore hard-lined criminals and let them into Canada?”