‘A reliable security partner’
The Trudeau government had best hope that Donald Trump was so preoccupied upbraiding Nordstrom department stores, for discontinuing his daughter Ivanka’s fashion line, that he missed a potentially disastrous item in the Daily Beast this week.
The online news site ran an article quoting security officials, who suggested the U.S. is looking in the wrong direction when it comes to border security. The article cited FBI statistics that indicated far more known or suspected terrorists are encountered at the Canadian border than at the Mexican.
“Not to say that Mexico isn’t a problem but the real bad guys aren’t coming from there — at least not yet,” said one unidentified senior official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
President Trump is already on a crusade for stronger borders but his focus has almost exclusively been on building a wall on the U. S.’s southern flank.
But were, for example, Fox News to run with the idea that Michigan, New York State and Washington State are vulnerable to terrorists wandering over the unguarded border, Canada could find itself in Trump’s crosshairs.
This country remains a cork in the torrent of protectionist policy emanating from Washington. The Canadian government has been trying to play down any possible security breaches.
Ralph Goodale, the public safety minister, said he couldn’t comment on the veracity of leaked FBI statistics but said he had not heard any “expressions of angst” coming from his U. S. counterparts. “We have a relationship that is the source of great co- operation and strength,” he said in an interview.
He pointed out that no terrorists have successfully attacked the U.S. after crossing the border.
“Canada is a reliable security partner,” he said.
Still, this week’s story has the potential to spread like brushfire and reinforce perceptions, often erroneous, that Canada is lax on terror.
A Fraser Institute study of congressional perceptions found that U. S. lawmakers didn’t often think about Canada, but when they did, it was as a source of energy and terrorists. There were, the report said, “persistent and repeated” allegations that Can- ada is soft on terror and was the source of some of the 9/11 hijackers.
Frank McKenna, Canada’s former ambassador in Washington, once called the 9/ 11 myth “a viral infection,” yet diplomats in the U. S. capital are obliged routinely to refute the suggestion.
Chrystia Freeland, the new global affairs minister, was in Washington Wednesday, meeting with her U. S. counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In a conference call with reporters, she said the conversation was focused on making the border “thinner,” through joint initiatives like the pre-clearance of people and cargo.
Goodale signed pre-clearance and entry/exit deals when he accompanied Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Washington last March. Both measures are currently before the House of Commons, where they appear to have all- party support. Congress passed i ts pre- clearance legislation before Christmas, with the bill passing unanimously through both houses. “That was a pretty strong endorsement of Canada,” said Goodale.
But while there have been advances in co- operation such as Shiprider, the crossborder maritime law-enforcement effort, critics contend that too much of the border remains porous.
Three years ago, the RCMP was allocated funds to deploy sensor technology between Quebec and t he Golden Horseshoe in Ontario. It remains a work in progress.
Part of the Beyond the Border agreement signed by Stephen Harper and Barack Obama included the creation of a face-recognition biometric database but it still at the pilot-project stage.
Part of the problem may be that — at least until the election of Trump — border security was not a priority for the Liberals.
Bill Morneau’s budget allocated an additional $ 14 billion over five years for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to screen commerce flowing to and from the U. S. But a glance at the government’s spending priorities suggests fewer people will work at CBSA in two years than now, while spending is forecast to tumble to $1.57 billion by 2018/19 from the $ 1.85 billion spent in 2013/ 14. The explanation for spending nearly $ 300 million less on border security is a “planned reduction in funding for major initiatives included in the Beyond the Border Action Plan.”
Goodale said the government is looking at CBSA’s resource requirements. “There are new demands put on CBSA and with those demands there will need to be budget allocations to make sure they can deliver what we ask them to do,” he said. “They are responsible for keeping the country safe and keeping the border efficient, safe and prosperous. Canadians and our neighbours can be assured of this.”
More funding for border security would seem to be a good idea in these nervous times, particularly when you are dealing with a skittish president who thinks that anyone who is not paranoid is crazy.
WE HAVE A RELATIONSHIP THAT IS THE SOURCE OF GREAT CO-OPERATION.