Calgary Herald

THERE IS NOTHING TO SUPPORT FEARS AMONG SOME AMERICANS THAT CANADA IS SOFT ON TERROR, AND THAT THE BORDER IS A SIEVE. BUT WITH TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE, WE HAD BETTER TREAD CAUTIOUSLY.

Canada’s border security called into question

- JOHN IVISON Comment from Ottawa National Post jivison@nationalpo­st.com Twitter.com/IvisonJ

The Trudeau government had best hope 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 border.

“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.

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 cooperatio­n and strength,” he said in an interview.

He pointed out that no terrorists have successful­ly attacked the U.S. after crossing the Canadian border.

“Canada is a reliable security partner,” he said.

Still, this week’s story has the potential to spread like brush fire and reinforce perception­s, often erroneous, that Canada is lax on terror.

A Fraser Institute study of congressio­nal perception­s found 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 Canada 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 preclearan­ce 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 before the House of Commons, where they appear to have all-party support. Congress passed its pre-clearance legislatio­n before Christmas, with the bill passing unanimousl­y through both houses.

“That was a pretty strong endorsemen­t of Canada,” Goodale said.

But while there have been advances in co-operation such as Shiprider, the cross-border maritime lawenforce­ment 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 the Golden Horseshoe in Ontario. It remains a work in progress.

Part of the Beyond the Border agreement signed by former prime minister Stephen Harper and former U.S. president 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 201314. 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’re dealing with a skittish president who thinks anyone who is not paranoid is crazy.

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