Ont. border guards walk off job after scare

[styky]

Ont. border guards walk off job after scare
CTV.ca News Staff

Customs officers in Ontario walked off the job Wednesday, saying they were not equipped to deal with an "armed and dangerous" fugitive believed to be heading for the border.

The walkout caused huge backlogs at the Niagara Falls, Ont., border crossing after customs agents began exercising their right to refuse to work if they feel their lives are threatened.

Within hours, all of the full-time customs agents and most of the students working at the Fort Erie crossing had left their posts.

By mid-evening Wednesday, all full-time agents at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and the bridge in Queenston, Ont., had walked off the job.

A Canadian Border Service Agency spokeswoman for the area confirmed the walkout and said travellers should avoid those crossings if possible until the dispute is resolved.

The spokeswoman told CTV.ca that she couldn't confirm how long the walkout might last, but that border delays Thursday were "minimal."

Ron Moran, national president of the Customs and Excise Union that represents the agents, told The Globe and Mail that guards in Fort Erie were issued a photo of a criminal who escaped from custody in Winchester, Ky., and told to let him through.

The idea, as he understood it, was to allow the man to walk into the waiting arms of the police.

However, a Niagara Regional Police official said he had no knowledge of such instructions, but confirmed that cellphone tracking had suggested the man might be heading for the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and was thought to be driving a van and in the company of a woman.

"The person is to be considered armed and dangerous," Inspector Bob Ciupa of the Niagara Regional Police told The Globe last night.

Agents began walking off the job Wednesday afternoon when armed police were deployed at the border in Ontario. Witnesses said shotgun-wielding officers were stationed at the Niagara Falls crossing and tactical officers appeared at the Fort Erie crossing.

At the Fort Erie crossing Wednesday night, managers kept two booths operating, but that was not enough to handle the line of vehicles that stretched the length of the Peace Bridge and into the United States. The situation was less chaotic at the other two crossings.

This is the fourth such border closing over the issue of unarmed guards.

The union said yesterday's incident shows yet again why customs agents need firearms to do their jobs properly.

<a href=http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1125586198344_120995398/?hub=Canada>source</a>

[Nemo2]

It's past time to arm these people.

[styky]

The government gives this big cockandbull story of pride about how we have this unprotected border and then they throw these poor souls on the front lines with no protection and tell them to look after it at ALL COSTS in cluding their lives.

Its arm them

[Kate Shaw]

RUN AWAY! That's what I would have expected from the Canadians deployed to Stand On Guard for Me.

Maybe they can get their Mommies to guard our border for us. Or perhaps we could find some hockey players (Todd Bertuzzi? Tie Domi?) who wouldn't run crying home to nanny when bad guys come to call?

Give me strength.

[Smaug]

This is the fourth such border closing over the issue of unarmed guards.

The union said yesterday's incident shows yet again why customs agents need firearms to do their jobs properly.

I agree with their actions. Border guards need weapons ..... asking them to go to a gunfight armed with nothing is not sensible.

[NorthOf45]

RUN AWAY! That's what I would have expected from the Canadians deployed to Stand On Guard for Me.

Maybe they can get their Mommies to guard our border for us. Or perhaps we could find some hockey players (Todd Bertuzzi? Tie Domi?) who wouldn't run crying home to nanny when bad guys come to call?

Give me strength.

Alright then, let's take away the guns from US customs agents and see how they react. I'd lay money down that some would have the exact same reaction if they were to catch wind that a potentially armed and dangerous convict was heading their way. I'm in no way condoning the action of the Canadian guards ... not at all. I trust though that you would be as quick to judge the agents on the southern side of the border.

[Splendor Sine Occasu]

I support the action of the guards. They are not equipped to deal with dangerous people crossing our borders. It is up to their employer (federal government) to provide a safe work environment, which means the equipment and training to deal with dangerous people.

[JBG]

How best to protect The Border, i.e. the crossing between Baffin and Greenland?

[Knave]

In my experience with Canada Customs and border patrol people.... I would specifically not give them guns, given the fact that they have simply too many employees who seemingly revel in what power they have over people.

Imagine if they were allowed to pull out their gun and blaze away at anyone they felt threatened by?

I remember a friend who did man a border crossing for a good while - he told me with a grimace that there's a lot of people in that job who simply washed out of every single police service they applied to, and still wanted to be important. So there they were....

Arm them? No. They'd have to re-train the lot of them more than it'd be worth.

Make it part of the RCMP's mandate. Hire more officers. Make THEM guard the border.

[kowalski]

Because of the circumstances there's a chance that it was an employer sanctioned job action. Espescially since 2 boths remained open.

[snakebite]

RUN AWAY! That's what I would have expected from the Canadians deployed to Stand On Guard for Me.

Maybe they can get their Mommies to guard our border for us. Or perhaps we could find some hockey players (Todd Bertuzzi? Tie Domi?) who wouldn't run crying home to nanny when bad guys come to call?

Give me strength.

Common sense should tell you that they were staging a political protest and not reacting as cowards.

It is the [guns are bad] blithering liberal idiots who put the lives of these law enforcement officers in jeapardy every single day. Good on them for telling the liberals to piss off.

[jeffr]

I crossed from Washington State into Canada about three weeks ago, going into Trail, BC through Waneta, and the border guard was armed. Both my dad and I commented that we were a little creeped out that the guy looked about 17 and had a pistol on his hip.

So... some border guards must be armed. Don't know why the agents back east are being left out.

[kenan]

I crossed from Washington State into Canada about three weeks ago, going into Trail, BC through Waneta, and the border guard was armed. Both my dad and I commented that we were a little creeped out that the guy looked about 17 and had a pistol on his hip.

So... some border guards must be armed. Don't know why the agents back east are being left out.

Impossible....Canadian customs officers carry batons and pepper spray but definitely not any firearms. The only possible way you could have seen what you say you did was if the officer in question was an RCMP officer who happened to be there at the port for some reason or another but in that case he definitely wouldn't have been the one questioning you as you crossed.

But thanks to the idiots who value political correctness over national security while governing our country , Canadian border guards certainly do NOT carry guns.

[netsurfer]

In my experience with Canada Customs and border patrol people.... I would specifically not give them guns, given the fact that they have simply too many employees who seemingly revel in what power they have over people.

Imagine if they were allowed to pull out their gun and blaze away at anyone they felt threatened by?

I remember a friend who did man a border crossing for a good while - he told me with a grimace that there's a lot of people in that job who simply washed out of every single police service they applied to, and still wanted to be important. So there they were....

Arm them? No. They'd have to re-train the lot of them more than it'd be worth.

Make it part of the RCMP's mandate. Hire more officers. Make THEM guard the border.

I travel over the U.S. border at least once a week. Believe me the Canadian customs officials are for, the most part, just not mature or responsible enough to be issued firearms. They are just too full of themselves and quick to assert their authority.

Two instances, amongst, perhaps six, particularly stand out in my mind:

(bear in mind that my wife and I are both seniors with no criminal records and always carry our passports with us when we cross the border.)

We had travelled from B.C. to Saskatchewan on the U.S. side in our motorhome. When we entered Sask. they wouldn't accept our passports as identification and were made to exit our vehicle and produce 2 other pieces of I.D. They demanded to know why it had taken us so long (2 weeks) to drive across, how much did we spend on food and meals and what places did we stay in while we were travelling in the U.S.

You can't argue with them because you know that they are just itching to abuse you further by searching your vehicle and causing you as much discomfort as possible.

At another time my wife, unbeknown'st to me, had purchased a package (not a carton) of cigarettes when we were down for less than 48 hrs. and she hadn't yet opened same.

I told the customs officer that we had not purchased any cigarettes or liquor but my wife corrected me. My god you should have seen the reaction, I was accused of lying, made to go inside and pay taxes and duty on 1 package of cigarettes and told that if they wished they could confiscate my vehicle. (bear in mind that it was only due to my wife's honesty that they even knew about the cigarettes).

I may as well have been carrying a carload of dope and had a trunk full of illegal imigrants. ( whoops, there wouldn't have been a problem with the latter).

WITH THE TREATMENT THAT I HAVE EXPERIENCED AT THE CANADIAN BORDER I AM FIRMLY CONVINCED THAT,FOR THE MOST PART, OUR BORDER OFFICIALS ARE TOO IMMATURE AND EAGER TO ASSERT THEMSELVES TO BE ISSUED FIREARMS.

[Roy Wilson]

A They should be armed

B They shouldnt be hiring students