12 April 2005

American 'patience running out' over border

The following article is excerpted from the 12 April 2005 edition of the “National Post”.

The United States is running out of patience with gaps in Canada's border security and warns it risks becoming "a junior partner" in continental affairs unless it plugs the holes, says an influential U.S. Congressman who sits as the senior Republican on the Homeland Security committee.

"To keep the relationship going and to have a kind of seamless North America, there needs to be a commitment out of your legislature that they are going to spend some money," said U.S. Congressman Mark Souder.

"We were hoping that the Canadians were more advanced than apparently they are. We'd like to think that as an advanced Western nation, Canada is committed to devoting some resources to this," he [said] … in response to yesterday's report on security shortcomings documented by the border agents' union [CEUDA]. "We would like to have Canada as a joint partner rather than a junior partner. But if you don't spend the money, you become a junior partner."

Mr. Souder is a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee and since 2001, has chaired the Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. government's domestic and international anti-drug efforts.

The litany of weaknesses in perimeter security flagged in the border report concern the United States and are taking away from the special relationship with Canada, Mr. Souder said.

"We can easily get an arrogant American attitude on this -- we were directly hit on 9/11 and Canada wasn't. While that means the urgency isn't as great there, nevertheless... patience is starting to run out," he said.

He warned that if Canada didn't want the U.S. to take total responsibility for protection of the border, Canada needs to act on some basic security issues.

Anne McLellan, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, took issue with the contention that Canada isn't pulling its weight.

"We have invested over $9-billion in new funds to secure the safety of our citizens," Ms. McLellan says in the text of a statement prepared for an appearance at the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence last night.

"But we need to remember that this is an evolving process, and that there is still more work to do," the statement says.

The recent federal budget promised more than $400 million for Canada Border Services Agency priorities and increased demands at key border locations….

"Our cooperation with the United States is reflected in many ways," Ms. McLellan says.

Mr. Souder says that the two areas of chief concern to the U.S. are flawed or non-existent computer checks on incoming travellers at the Canadian border, and a failure to pre-clear passengers boarding some international flights, particularly those destined for Halifax….

"Long term, on the Canadian border, the water and these open land borders presents a huge problem but I don't believe they are, in the short term, as critical as the computers at the major border crossings and the airport….

Alex Swann, a spokesman for Ms. McLellan, said the Halifax airport situation has already been addressed and U.S. Custom's officials are scheduled to soon occupy dedicated space at the Halifax airport to conduct security clearances.

There are 62 land-border sites staffed by officers who do not have access to the CBSA computer databases, according to a dossier of security problems chronicled by front-line border agents, presented behind closed doors to the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence last week.

Further, the computer database systems designed to warn border agents at land crossings about high-risk travellers are inadequate and contain a programming limitation consistently preventing officers from knowing if they are dealing with armed and dangerous fugitives or even terrorists on the FBI's top terror watch list, the dossier says.

"You