The Committee recommended that:

• Connect the unconnected:  The Government ensure Customs Officers across Canada have access to computers hooked up to the Customs mainframe so they can search databases when on the lookout for persons “likely to engage in criminal activities or endanger the safety of Canadians.”

CEUDA response:  On February 5, 2003, then Minister Caplan committed to “connect the unconnected.”  We know for a fact that none of the offices in Quebec that were unconnected then are connected today, and we’ve seen no evidence to demonstrate that any of the unconnected offices are now connected anywhere in Canada; which means Customs Officers in those offices continue to work with paper trails and have no way of running a person’s credentials through any form of a database at these ports. 

• No more one-person ports - hire more Customs Officers:  That no Customs Officers in Canada work alone.  If no technology is available that would make a lone customs officers both safe and effective, hire more people. 

CEUDA response: Again using Quebec as an example, only 3 of 47 offices have 2 or more Customs Officer working 24/7 in this province.  The same ratio exists in New Brunswick and in the Prairies.  In B.C., the recent death of a Customs Officer who died while working alone at the Port of Roosville was a reality wake-up call that has brought this unconscionable situation back to the forefront in the minds of all Customs Officers.  In Canada, 139 border crossings have Customs Officers working alone.  CEUDA has issued several news releases on the matter in the past few weeks.

Customs Officers working alone CANNOT enforce the Criminal Code because it’s too risky.  This means that when known criminals and other persons known to be a threat to Canadians find themselves subjected to questioning at what should be a controlled law enforcement facility, they are actually allowed to waltz into Canada rather than be intercepted.  This Policy is applied in the hopes that these individuals will be intercepted by police once inland.

• Fully train students, or more full-time Customs Officers:  All personnel on the primary inspection line must be trained to the highest standard, without exceptions for short-term staff.  Claims that students don’t need as much training because they do different jobs and are supervised by full-time officers are simply not credible. If students are to be used, there is no justification for having a less well-trained person on any line at any given moment. Either more full-time officers must be hired, or part-time officers must receive identical training.

CEUDA response:  Not only are students not fully trained, they cannot by law enforce the Criminal Code at the border.  This means they can’t legally take any action to even detain drunk drivers, child abductors, persons subject to arrest warrants, or someone driving a stolen vehicle.  The Senate reports stated: “during one 24 hour period at the Rainbow Bridge in Ontario this summer, the border crossing staff consisted of 16 full-time officers and 39 students.”  There is nothing motivating this situation other than the continued appetite to use cheap labour as this country’s first line of defence.  The Government of Canada must stop twisting this issue into what they claim in an attack on student employment.  In fact, the Canadian Federation of Students is in full agreement with CEUDA on this matter.

CEUDA applauds the Senate Committee’s latest report, and urges the Deputy Prime Minister to heed the Committee’s recommendations and order the bureaucracy to stop risking the lives of Customs Officers, students, and Canadians.

CEUDA is writing the Deputy Prime Minister requesting to meet and discuss how and when her Government will move to implement the Senate Committee’s recommendations.

CEUDA again urges the CBSA to create a border patrol, since Canada has serious monitoring and enforcement shortfalls between border crossings.

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