Canadian Border Guards Flee Posts After 'Dangerous' Traveler Warning

It was not 60 people who left, it was 40 : /myu7j If you want to sound the least bit informed refrain from referring to Fox news or any other American propoganda cog wheel. Make no mistake - Canadians can count.
As a Canadian I am not the least bit embarassed by this news. Was it a political statement? Why not let the Americans handle a this situation when it is one of their own and when they have proven to have no compunction with flying across the planet to kill innocents for oil ? It seems the global bullies cry 'foul' when faced with having to kill on their own soil.

Originally posted by sardion2000
You do realize how large the border is right? By land, sea, air, and sometimes subterrainian, the number of routes into your country most likely number in the tens of thousands. How in the hell can you secure such a vast amount of territory? How can we? We have the longest undefended border because defending it would be so costly that the benefits of having an truely open border would be glaringly obvious... cue North American Union conspiracy theories now...

When I posted, I was under the impression some guy was on his way to a border crossing. Are there border crossings into Canada that are unmanned? All the ones I've seen have border patrol stationed there. I realize that it is a big border, but evidently the Canadian patrol at the crossing closed up shop.

I fluked out and had a border gaurd in my shop today.
We had a little chat sparked by his reaction to this event being on the front page of a couple news papers.

It was a job action more than anything else.
The guards have been pushing for side arms and more authority for awhile. As it stands, the guards don't have the right to arest! The way it works is there are RCMP officers statioined at the crossing points. If trouble arises, the guards can detain (not arrest) people and the RCMP take care of the problem.

There also seems to be another issue simmering that might be related.
For months now the US has been trash talking Canada and Canadian security. The customs people are generally fed up with it, especially since the biggest contention is Canadians keeping people out of the US. That isn't our job. It's the US's job to watch their borders and our job to watch ours. Despite that fact, most of the big catches at the border involve Canadian security... yet our guys are still being dumped on in the media.
That tends to inspire less than friendly feelings, ya know?

At any rate, I hope this event gives those guards the leverage they need to get their demands pushed through. What really needs to happen is to get the RCMP and Canadian Customs better integrated.

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
in Canada, border guards do not carry weapons nor do they do arrests as in the US.

Then what good are they? Guess they should be taking a cue from their American counterparts. Arm themselves and train for border duty.

Border duty isn't like being a crossing guard at a grade school. It's serious business.

There seems to be a pattern here, this same thing has happened several times this year in this example the individual was from Packistan and 20 customs agents fled their posts. :shk:




This is rediculous, all it would take is 90 days max to train them in the proper use of fire arms if that. Note my figure of 90 days was way high intentionally, I think it could be done in two to three weeks max based on my militray and civilian training in the use of guns.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Then what good are they? Guess they should be taking a cue from their American counterparts. Arm themselves and train for border duty.

I'm not if you fathom what kind of a mess that would be, arming themselves. Firstly, it wouldn't be taken well by the dirty hippies who hate guns in the country. Secondly, it wouldn't be looked upon kindly by the government, who have been the ones keeping them from having guns despite them kicking and screaming about it. These job actions are meant to embarass them into doing something, as well as potentially protecting their lives. I don't know about you, but there ain't nothin' I'm willing to die for at 15$/hr.

DE

Does anyone know what the average wage of a soldier in the U.S. Military is?

A good friend of mine used to work for Canadian Customs. He manned the border at St. Saulte Marie for a number of years before he finally called it quits in disgust. He'd been injured a number of times on the job after actually being physically accosted by people he was screening.

As far as allowing the American border guards to deal with problems heading toward Canada? Well, typically, those heading towards Canada NEVER need to be seen or questioned by the American border guards at all. Entering into Canada does not merit being seen by an American border guard first. The guns that American Custom Agents carry are for self defense and law enforcement on those entering the US, not leaving.

My friend said that he had like his job, for the most part, and that it could easily have led towards a rewarding career. Being unarmed, however, made him feel anxious and entirely defenseless against people who were potentially violent. The only thing that he could do when confronted by someone who was beligerent was to call the St.Sault Marie police or the R.C.M.P. -- incidentally, neither had an office at the Bridge where he was stationed.

Train and arm Canadian Custom officers to deal with the law enforcement problems that they must face every single day on their jobs! It would be nice to think that we all still live in kinder gentler times but the reality of this day and age of global terrorism and random, irrational, violence is something that the government will have to accept.

Holy over-reaction by the posters here. It was obviously a job action situation. Seemed kind of smart to me. If they really wanted to screw things up they would have just lifted the gates and waved people through. They didn't. They shut it down preventing anyone and anything from crossing. This seems like your typical Fox News story. A whole bunch of bluster without thinking the story through and what it really means.

Originally posted by The Iconoclast
It was obviously a job action situation. Seemed kind of smart to me.

Yes, I feel that you are absolutely right "Iconoclast". This was a job action to highlight the conditions that Canadian Customs Agents must contend with.

Initially, the 'take' one gets on a story like this is that the Customs officials are simply not doing their job. The word "deplorable" was one reactionary term that must have been used.

On the other hand, from a Health and Safety standpoint, the issue certainly begins to change and the clear lines that were defined by "simply do your job" become rather fuzzy.

Canadian Custom Agents have been demanding firearms and firearms training for a number of years now. In my opinion, it's high time that they have their demands met.

Aaaahhh.

So this was a Union-initiated negotiating ploy.

And it worked. Now Canadian border guards will be armed.

How is them being armed a bad thing, Sofi?

I don't have a problem with it, and the job action seemed to work. Maybe their poor conditions will improve (somewhat).

DE

Originally posted by soficrow
Aaaahhh.

So this was a Union-initiated negotiating ploy.

And it worked. Now Canadian border guards will be armed.

That's what a union is for, to take care of the employee when management won't.

So you would rather have public employees in a potential hostile enviroment without the means to protect themselves AND the border? That makes no sense imo.

Kudos to the union - but I yearn for the past.

Like when London bobbies just had night sticks, and British criminals didn't carry guns either.

...Seems to me that authorities set the tone for discourse, and confrontation. If we pull out the hardware we ensure that it will be met, matched, and used.


.

Originally posted by soficrow
Kudos to the union - but I yearn for the past.

Like when London bobbies just had night sticks, and British criminals didn't carry guns either.

Unfortunately those days are gone.

...Seems to me that authorities set the tone for discourse, and confrontation. If we pull out the hardware we ensure that it will be met, matched, and used.


.

Actually it's the other way around. If the gov't had been PROactive the Customs agents would have firearms already. This is REactive as the bad dudes ALREADY have firearms.

Sofi, have you ever worked security?

As much fun as discourse is, guess what happens. I ended up replacing a guy near a shopping mall. He tried to use discourse on someone trying to break into a car or selling drugs to someone in a car (no one is really sure which, except maybe him, and I never saw him) and ended up getting chopped out pretty bad. Serious stab wounds. Whoops, advantage to the criminal.

The days of discourse as a means of self-defence went out with the dueling pistol. We're lucky, we're in Canada. We don't have terrible violent crime rates (though, this is changing).

Border secruity is a LAW ENFORCEMENT job, not a security job. You are actively enforcing the law, not protecting assets or trying to prevent crime. It's dangerous, and the criminal element plays for keeps. The bobby with a bat is gone, pine all you want.

DE

ARM them. PAY them good wages. TRAIN them properly for border duty.

How hard is it for a government to understand that they have important and dangerous jobs?

Originally posted by soficrow
Like when London bobbies just had night sticks, and British criminals didn't carry guns either.
.

Well most british bobbies DONT have guns, armed police are still a small unit and not the majority. I have never seen armed police in edinburgh or any major city except london and that was outside the US embassy standing in the rain.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
ARM them. PAY them good wages. TRAIN them properly for border duty.

How hard is it for a government to understand that they have important and dangerous jobs?

You have to understand that while there are many simillarities between Americans and Canadians, there are many differences as well. We aren't as anal when it comes to guns. You'ld never hear, ".... from my cold dead hands" here. Mind you, I'm not about to give mine up either.

We have a bad taste about guns lately. The gun registry, which I didn't report to, cost the tax payer billions. Gun crimes in urban areas are on the rise. These however are either gang related or by immigrants(such as Sri Lankan's) bringing their war here, for the most part. Touching gun issues is touchy, not as cut and dry as it would be in the US. Ironicly it's going to take a Conservative gov't to push for this to be resolved for the Custom's agents.

Apparently the Canadian Border Guard is about as effective in protecting their border as the Minute Men along the Mexican border are as far as protecting us!

Honestly I would be ashamed if the Border Patrol turned tail and run because the possibility of a dangerous mexican might come along. Where may I ask is the self respect a dignified nation as your selves should have??