Travellers say border officers rude and racist

The Canada Border Services Agency faced more than 100 “founded” complaints from travellers last year, including allegations of racism and rudeness, and one from a woman who claimed an officer yelled at her while she was in medical distress.

Data provided to the Canadian Press through access to information legislation says that in 201718 these were among the 105 founded cases of complaints of officer misconduct — about 12 per cent of 875 misconduct complaints filed in that time.

The total number of complaints through the CBSA’s Compliments, Comments and Complaints website remains a tiny fraction of the 95 million travellers seen by officers in the past year.

But civil liberties groups say the latest collection of incidents shows that Canada needs an independent complaints agency, similar to those used to oversee police forces, that can produce public reports and make binding recommendations to the agency.

The definition of “founded” provided by the agency says that “aspects in the allegations made in the complaint were valid.”

Tim McSorley, national coordinator of the Toronto-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, said the definition is far too vague to help lead to changes within the agency’s culture or for the public to be properly informed. The limited information shows cause for concern, particularly the allegations of racism, questioning of travellers’ nationality and name calling, he said.

“It shows that the majority of complaints are around respect or disrespect for travellers. For us, in particular, the incidents of racism are something we’ve heard more about, whether from Canadian citizens, or travellers from abroad,” McSorley said.

On Nov. 6 last year, one of the reports says, a “client states the border service officer was rude and yelled at her until she passed out.” An agency spokesman wrote in an email that an investigation found the medical distress wasn’t directly caused by the officer.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the agency will be included in a wider review of oversight systems the Liberal government is working on.

Scott Bardsley said the Public Safety Department “is advancing legislation to create a new expert review body, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency.” Its creation would be “a historic change that will greatly enhance how Canada’s national security agencies, including CBSA, are held to account.”

Jean-Pierre Fortin, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, said the complaints system shows that only a tiny minority of cases are showing problems of officer misconduct.

An independent oversight agency would be acceptable to the union, provided it could defend its officers, he said.