CEUDA DEMANDS APOLOGY:

MP Derek Lee Calls Border Services Officers “WIMPS”

SEPT 25 ... During Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day’s response to a serious question from NDP MP Joe Comartin (Monday, Sept 25, 2006) about the work refusal by 60 Border Services Officers at 4 land border crossings in British Columbia on Sunday, Sept 24, 2006, Liberal MP Derek Lee, Scarborough – Rouge River, began to shout “WHIMPS” and repeated it some 10 to 15 times in a vicious attack against men and women who guard Canada without sidearms and who exercised their legal right to refuse dangerous work under Part II of the Canada Labour Code when presented with intelligence telling them an American wanted for murder was headed their way and considered armed and dangerous.

Ron Moran, CEUDA National President, says, “MP Derek Lee’s comments are malicious and extremely unsettling.  CEUDA demands Derek Lee immediately issue a retraction and apologize to the men and women he so callously insulted and belittled.” 

CEUDA holds the view that Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet have done more for the Border Service as a law enforcement organization in the last few months than the Liberals did in 12 years.  Under Liberal rule, border security suffered immensely and Border Services Officers were often attacked by their own Government.   

First, it was Derek Hodgson, Spokesperson for former Liberal Minister Elinor Caplan, who on April 11, 2002, called Customs Officers our "first line of defence" in one breath, and then "'Welcome to Canada'  folks" in the next. 

Then it was the former Minister herself who, on the same date when answering a related question in the House of Commons, compared Border Services Officers to “Bank Tellers” while referencing the Customs policy that orders BSOs to let armed and dangerous persons into Canada – no questions asked – and then call police. 

Moran concludes that “Derek Lee’s insults once again demonstrate the arrogance and contempt Liberals have for these Officers.  Liberal governments always accused CEUDA of trying to obtain raises for these Officers by calling for sidearms at the border rather than acknowledging CEUDA’s genuine concern for their safety.  Despite passing legislation in May 1998 mandating these Officers to enforce the Criminal Code at the border and despite numerous independent reports – one from a Liberal-dominate Senate Committee – that each concluded these Officers must be armed, successive Liberal governments continued to ignore the issue and we again see why with comments like those by Derek Lee.”

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