Canadian Border Force To Be Armed

Policy to Be Implemented Gradually Over a Decade

TORONTO, Sept. 1 -- When the radio crackled with news that two California murder suspects were racing toward the U.S. border in January, Canadian border guards quickly cleared passenger cars from their posts and then fled.

The border officers have long argued they should not have to face danger armed with only their pepper spray and batons. Fifty-three times in the past year, according to the officers' union, Canadian border guards have walked off their posts in the face of potential threats.

This week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is giving the officers what they want, if slowly. He announced Thursday that the 4,400 officers of the Canada Border Services Agency -- stationed along what has been called the world's longest unguarded land border -- will be armed with guns over the next decade.

"We live in a dangerous world, and we know there is traffic of dangerous individuals and firearms across the border," Harper said in making the announcement at a border crossing in Surrey, B.C. He said Canadian officers "simply weren't equipped to deal with that kind of threat."

Harper also said the government will hire 400 more officers, partly to try to put an additional officer at some of the remote posts currently staffed by only a single guard, an arrangement that the guards' union has argued is dangerous.

For more than two decades, successive Canadian governments have resisted calls by the guards along the 3,145-mile land border to be equipped with weapons. Officials have been loath to allow handguns to spread as they have in the United States.

"Previous governments have believed the image of Canada would be tarnished by firearms," and the equipment and training would be too costly, said Steve Pellerin-Fowlie, vice president of the union representing the guards.

"But we live in a different era now. The role of customs was already changing, moving away from revenue collection to law enforcement even before 9/11 happened," he said. "I think it's consistent around the world. Bobbies are now armed in England. I think it is an indication that the level of sophistication of criminals is changing."

Canada has been under increasing pressure from the United States to toughen security at the border, following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The U.S. Congress has mandated that visitors begin showing passports at the border by Jan. 1, 2008. It is a delicate balance for Canada, which wants to minimize delays for the 37,000 trucks that move goods across the border each day, and which already has seen tourism from the United States drop in anticipation of the passport requirements.

"Efficient borders support trade and tourists," Harper said. "Secure borders keep drug smugglers, carjackers and terrorists out."

The policy change will gradually give the Canadian border guards parity with their armed U.S. counterparts. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, along with local sheriff's deputies, did fire their weapons last January to stop the two murder suspects at the Peace Arch Crossing near Blaine, Wash. One suspect was lightly wounded in a shootout after a sheriff's deputy rammed his car into their fleeing vehicle right at the Canadian line. The arch had been built in commemoration of the unguarded border.

Pellerin-Fowlie said the union is dismayed that about 2,000 airport customs officers are not being armed and that the arming of officers along the land border will take 10 years. In part because there are so few firearm ranges in Canada, the Border Service has said it will train only about 500 officers a year. Harper said the first 150 officers with weapons would be on duty in March 2008.

"We have lobbied to have our members armed for 21 years," the union official said. "To wait for another 10 years for it to unfold seems unrealistic and unnecessary. We ought to find the resources, the training courses and the personnel to conduct the training faster. There's a pressing need."

The official policy at the border is that Canadian agents are not supposed to try to apprehend armed and dangerous persons, but are supposed to call for help from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or local police departments, Pellerin-Fowlie said. But he said a dangerous confrontation could occur.

"We have been saying for 21 years, do we have to die for you" before officers are armed? he said.