ltmurnau: (Default)
ltmurnau ([personal profile] ltmurnau) wrote2006-09-25 01:23 pm

(no subject)

I wasn't gonna say anything but:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/09/25/guards-return.html

The Canadian Border Security Agency says it will take ten years to train and equip every officer with a sidearm. The first two years will cost $101 million (http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/agency/security-securite/questions-e.html).

Conspicuous by its absence is any reportage of the number of Canadian border guards who have been shot by desperadoes raging to hop the line into the Great White North. That's because there haven't been any: among the 730 names in the Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial Honour Roll, going back to 1804, there are only four entries for customs officers: one in 1980 (no one seems to know how he died, but a boardroom in the Customs Excise Union building is named after him) and three in 1994 (two drowned in a flood, and one was killed when a drunk driver hit her car).

I am not convinced this is a good idea, when I cross the border and look at the college students doing their summer term with CBSA, asking me about where I've been and do I have any cigarettes.

It kind of reminds me of the late 1980s when I was working in Ottawa, around Parliament Hill and the Governor-General's residence. The RCMP was tasked with a lot of public security duties and as usual was very short-staffed. So, they hired 3-400 "Special Constables" who mostly did airport security, VIP security, and institutional security at Parliament Hill and the residences of the Prime Minister and G-G.

They all had sidearms and many of them were armed with the Heckler and Koch MP-5 9mm submachine gun, a short-barreled compact weapon then used by many SWAT and counter-terrorist units. These were taken away from them within two years, because of the many instances of SCs shooting themselves in the foot or leg with them!

[identity profile] ltmurnau.livejournal.com 2006-09-26 03:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Regardless, because of my comments I expect to be invited into the "Little Room" the next time I want to re-enter Canada.

[identity profile] jeffreyab.livejournal.com 2006-09-26 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Also some of the American Border Patrol have been carrying guns for years so its a matter of:

A) Keeping up with the Joneses and

B) Anticipating conditions down south reflecting future conditions up here.

How ever I do not think the Canadian border will not soon if ever have the illegals smuggling problem the Americans do.