Our immigration and customs officers (now combined with mixed results into the Canadian Border Services Agency – the CBSA) tend to be fairly quiet in public and are seldom heard from – this doesn’t mean that they are satisfied… The author of the following submission is one of our frontline workers in protecting our society from terrorism, and he and his colleagues have some complaints.
The next time you travel through a border crossing, and the officer greeting you seems a bit tense, we would like you to keep in mind the current issues affecting who you may incorrectly perceive as the ‘disgruntled’ officers.
With the current ‘war on terror’, the public believes the duty of protecting our society should rest upon law enforcement, more specifically, on the police. The law enforcement community is made up of more than just the police. First responders such as EMS and firefighters work hand in hand with our loyal ‘boys in blue’. But our police have been sadly relegated to the status of garbage men. Don’t get us wrong, we have the utmost respect for police, fire and EMS officers; they truly are our best friends. But they have been left as a reactive group which is called in to sweep up the mess left by other departments. There is a crucial body that is neglected in representing the loyal men and women who fight terror. This is your first line of defense: Those who protect our borders, from within and outside North America, more specifically our Armed Forces, Customs and Immigration.
We are heart broken and sickened by the lack of support our military is getting from citizens of North America. What happened to our patriotism? Those who oppose our troops still stand up for our National Anthems with a hypocritical pride. Regardless of anyone’s thoughts on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, these brave men and women are over there risking their lives to protect us. The city of Toronto came close to banning “Support Your Troops” magnets on city vehicles. Apparently the city didn’t want to show they supported the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then, south of the border you have film makers like Michael Moore recruiting anti-war mongers. There was a time when some would say this was a clear instance of treason.
Generations before, those who fought in Germany and Korea never received this much flak from their fellow countrymen. Why?
The public needs to be educated about the threat terrorism poses to our way of life. Didn’t September 11th, Madrid, London, Glasgow or even the recent arrests in Canada not open our eyes? Or must we wait for the grand terrorist attack that makes September 11th look like child’s play? On June 12, 2002, Al-Qa’ida spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith stated the following:
“America must prepare itself; it must go on maximum alert; … because, Allah willing, the blow will come from where they least expect it… We have the right to kill 4 million Americans – 2 million of them children”
Before many of you jump to the conclusion and state that this is a direct threat to the United States, please do your homework first. The terrorists do not differentiate between Americans, Canadians or even the British. We are all the enemy to them. They lump us all as Americans because we all hold the same values of freedom and democracy. Yet even Osama Bin Laden himself openly stated more than once that Canada is their enemy and we are on the list of six countries that are their preferred targets.
If this doesn’t convince you of the threat, then perhaps you should take into account the former Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Ward Elcock in his May 7th 2004 address on CBC:
“As al-Qaeda directly threatened Canadians at least twice in the last two years, the last time only a month ago, it is therefore safe to assume that it’s no longer a question of if, but where and when we’ll be specifically targeted.“
The very people who want to destroy us are training over in Iraq and Afghanistan, only to later board a plane back to Western countries to carry out future attacks against us on our very own soil. Why else do you think our Armed Forces are over there? For oil? Please. They are over there to stop the threat before it comes our way. This is the crucial point where Border Services now take over.
Canada’s Customs and Immigration personnel should be a proactive body in the war on terror, but the hundreds of officers guarding our borders are only a reactive group who merely facilitate the traveling public through our borders. This ‘window dressing’ is to imply that we are really doing something to protect the national security of our country. The sad reality is these officers are neglected when it comes to training on current issues and are not given the necessary skills or equipment to tackle the threat of terrorism. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of radical extremists have crossed our borders, leaving our local law enforcement (the police) to clean up the mess the border officers unknowingly created. This is hardly fair to pass this burden on to local law enforcement who are already over worked and under staffed.
But, with the lack of training to our front line Border Officers, how does one expect they will catch every person coming through who intends to do harm to our way of life?
Many officers suffered guilt and a rash of other strong emotions during and after September 11th. “Did we let them in?”, “Am I responsible for 3,000 people dying?” Of course these officers are not responsible, but that horrible gut wrenching fear of the unknown wreaked havoc on many officers. Some of them merely shut down, while others took it upon themselves to use their vacation time and their own money to finance training on an individual basis. The public service union contract clearly specifies “Career Development” which allows management to approve such training leave for the officers. To date, no officer at Canada’s busiest port of entry has ever been granted such leave under their contract to attend training on countering the terrorist threat. Instead we are to rely on other elite National Security departments who sadly face the same obstacles and have little knowledge themselves of the real threat posed to North America.
Furthermore, with the creation of “Homeland Security” departments in both the US and Canada, the port of entry vision is to create one super officer who can do the functions of Customs, Immigration, and Agriculture.
Yet there is no increase in pay to take on two extra job positions, but that isn’t the issue here. (Although CBSA officers are paid, on the average, $20,000 less a year than police officers) The issue here is quality of work vs. quantity of work. Prior to the merger of the departments, each section specialized in its own area of expertise. Now, an Immigration officer must hunt down contraband boxes and forbidden meats and cheeses. Likewise, an Agriculture officer is given the task of determining if a person is admissible to the country. Customs must do the work of all three departments. All three departments are now expected to be versed in all legislation that governed each legacy department. The public will never know who is who, as all three departments now wear the same uniform, with no distinction on who belonged to which legacy group.
So don’t be surprised next time you travel if an officer is sifting through various acts, regulations and policy manuals to determine if you or your goods are admissible to the country. It will merely delay you for awhile.
What is next? Merging the police, fire and paramedics? Would we really expect upper management for EMS to start calling the shots over fire and police? Would we give a policeman a hose to put out the fire and give the fireman a gun and tell him to hunt down a bank robber? Not likely. But this is exactly what has happened by merging our border services into one body. Customs, by far, outnumbers Agriculture and Immigration staff. It is not surprising then, that upper management is now comprised of legacy Customs officials. These officials who specialize in Customs are now calling the shots for Immigration and Agriculture, and do not have a grasp of the legislation that governs each legacy group.
Currently, with the disputes between the union and management over shifts, schedules to balance the budget are actually costing the taxpayer more. Many ports across the country wanted to have all three legacy departments work the same shift, yet they failed to realize the line of business is specific to each legacy department and that the shift schedules that had been in place for many years worked like a charm for each department. The old expression “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is too logical for upper management to comprehend.
At Canada’s busiest port of entry, many officers have been forced to work 6 days on, 2 days off. Some even worked 12 days in a row, with no day of rest. These are rotating shifts covering 24 hours a day. These officers are told this is a regional issue and not a national issue. These shifts even concern police who support us at our airports and border crossings; they realize their own officers need a break between a string of night shifts to preserve officer safety. They want their officers alert to serve and protect. Many tactics imposed by management clearly violate labor codes yet they still manage to get away with it under the guise of ‘essential services’ and ‘operational requirements’. For many of us, the focus on securing our borders has now shifted to ‘When can I sleep?’, ‘When will this illegal shift end?’
Officers are exhausted and many simply don’t care what comes through our borders anymore. They are now focused on driving home safely without falling asleep behind the wheel and not killing innocent motorists on the way. Just managing the insane work schedule and grabbing sleep when one can is what is primary to these officers now — not the security of Canada. The human instinct of self preservation is now paramount.
Many members of the public do not know that the majority of officers they encounter on the front line are actually student officers. No, not officers in training, but university and college kids who need a summer job making a little over minimum wage. They receive two weeks training, are then given a port stamp, pepper spray, a baton, handcuffs and vest and told to secure our borders. Frightened? You should be. Don’t get us wrong, some take their duties seriously and would make excellent officers someday. The others are more concerned with getting off shift and making it in time before the keg runs out at the party. Do they have security clearance like the regular officers? Do they receive the same training as regular officers? Can they be trusted to protect the integrity and security of our borders? Will they jump in and assist a regular officer who is being attacked? Would you, if you made a little over minimum wage? The traveling public will never know they are student officers as they don the same uniform as regular officers.
The one thing that the traveling public and citizens alike should be grateful for is the implementation of firearms for the Border Officers. This has been a long time coming. The land borders across the country and inland enforcement officers have been facing a dire threat of being shot to death for decades now. Even the local police recognized this was true years before September 11th, and graciously donated their second hand bullet proof vests to the Border Officers to help protect them. God Bless You. Post September 11th, Border Officers finally were fitted properly with their own Kevlar vests. Window Dressing? Of course, we had to show the traveling public we were getting serious on security. Kevlar vests have an expiry date of 5 years and must be fitted to the individual, not to be used as a communal vest that is shared among officers.
Amazingly, our own citizens gripe, scream, yell and complain to the officers doing their jobs at the long line ups that have become common in recent years. But a CBSA officer can always tell those who served in the Armed Forces, or who lived directly under the threats of Nazism, communism and terrorism. They are the ones who are polite, gracious and do not complain. Some even take the time to thank us for our efforts, and that means the world to us. The only other person who ever took the time to thank us personally is the Honourable Mr. Stockwell Day, our Minister of Public Safety.
Mr. Day, your words of encouragement to us mean the world and we appreciate all your emails. We know you are trying to make things better for us. But I think there are some things you may not be aware of which is why we collectively wanted to express our concerns in this article. You are not neglecting us, but we think our concerns have been filtered up the pipeline to you. You have been the most supportive to us and we thank you for that.
So the next time you cross a border and are frustrated, give these officers a break. They are doing the best they can with what little they have to work with. Many are sleep deprived and spend more time with fellow officers than they do with their own families. With the insane shift schedules being implemented, many officers have suffered health problems and martial breakdowns. We all sacrifice our holidays with our families so we can preserve the security of our country, and we are proud and honoured to do so. But please think about the next time you sit down with your family over Ramadan, Christmas or Hanukah, while our families must celebrate without us, some even put a picture of us on the dinner table to remind them that we can only be there in spirit. But they are proud we are trying our best to protect the country. We only wish our fellow citizens felt the same.
Many officers have been swallowed up by the larger governing body and are faced with new job duties, conflicting legislation between each legacy departments, union issues, tackling poor work conditions and the dire effects on their health and family life. The last thing they need is an irate traveler to add to the mix.
This is prime time for illegal immigrants, criminals and terrorists to cross our borders. What are we going to do about it?
