How truck could run the border, reach 50 km inland
CBA officials frustrated by chase restriction
A dramatic weekend pursuit through Vancouver has highlighted a potentially dangerous quirk of border security: Canadian border guards are not allowed to chase vehicles that blow through border crossings.
“Our officers want to do the job; they are very frustrated by not being allowed to chase people running through the border,” said Jean-Pierre Fortin, president of the Customs and Immigration Union.
On Saturday morning, a blue pickup truck sped north through a Vancouver-area border crossing and was able to penetrate more than 50 kilometres into Canada before crashing in Vancouver’s west end.
The vehicle, driven by an as-yet unidentified man in his 20s, clipped a Mazda sedan before colliding with the front of Rufus Drum Shop on West 10th Street.
“High speed chase wound up in our front window,” wrote the shop in a Saturday Instagram post, noting that it occurred “about an hour before we opened.” The 32-year-old driver of the Mazda received minor injuries.
The incident began at the Peace Arch point of entry, Canada’s third-busiest border crossing.
Before 8 a.m., the pickup was seen speeding through a checkpoint.
Canadian Border Service Agency officials wear service firearms and are equipped with cruisers capable of high-speed pursuit. Nevertheless, as per CBSA protocol, in these instances, their agents are only authorized to radio ahead to police with a description of the vehicle.
“You run inside, you pick up the phone or the radio and you try to reach a police force,” said Fortin, adding: “We could have easily picked up the truck.”
Surrey RCMP, who patrol the area immediately surrounding Peace Arch, have experience in dealing with border-runners from the American side.
In 2016, a co-ordinated Surrey RCMP pursuit helped rein in an erratic Volkswagen that had plowed through Peace Arch checkpoints.
Nevertheless, the pickup was able to evade the Mounties. After receiving a call from CBSA at 7:45 a.m, Surrey RCMP put out patrols for the truck. When the patrols turned up nothing, Vancouver Police were informed at 8:20 a.m. to be on alert for the vehicle.
The pickup was able to speed through the jurisdictions for the Delta Police Department and Richmond RCMP until Vancouver Police identified the vehicle a few blocks south of Vancouver General Hospital around 8:30 a.m.
After the driver did not pull over in response to Vancouver Police lights and sirens, officers pursued him five kilometres west until its collision in Kitsilano.
“Efficient communication between agencies led to the swift arrest of this man who made unauthorized entry into Canada,” read a Vancouver Police statement.
Still, the suspect drove the equivalent of someone blowing through the border at Champlain, N.Y., and not being stopped until they were well into Greater Montreal.
If a truck barrelled through the crossing at Niagara Falls, 50 kilometres would get them as far as Grimsby, Ont.
Although the Vancouver truck crash is the most dramatic recent example of a border “blow-through,” similar incidents are relatively common at Canada’s 117 land border crossings.
“There are regular occurrences of drivers accelerating away from primary inspection,” reads a 2017 Canadian Border Services Agency briefing document obtained by the National Post through an access-toinformation request.
According to Fortin, the epicentre has been the point of entry near Cornwall, Ont. Vehicles are known to bypass the customs station up to several times a day and, unlike in Vancouver, they’re not always caught.
“It is frustrating and unbelievable that we can actually see vehicles running into Canada and (there’s) nothing we can do to stop them,” reads a 2017 email from Cornwall CBSA staff to Fortin.
Fortin has no quarrel with the ability of other police agencies to chase down border-runners, but he said CBSA simply has more resources to do so. “This is our core business,” said Fortin.
U.S. border guards, unlike their Canadian equivalents, are fully authorized to give chase to border-runners.
If a Vancouverite were to speed south into Washington State without stopping, U.S. border patrol would have the responsibility to pursue and intercept the vehicle, according to a spokesman with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.