Judge sides with CBSA on safety
Union says it will press agency for better access to information on potentially dangerous travellers
A Canadian border officer has failed to convince a federal judge that she and her colleagues working the front lines are in danger because their computer terminals lack sufficient information about potentially dangerous travellers.
But the president of the union representing border officers said Monday they will continue to press the issue with the Canada Border Services Agency. “We have to keep in mind we’ve got just a few seconds to make a huge decision to let somebody in or refuse access in this country,” said Jean-Pierre Fortin, national president of the Customs and Immigration Union. “You want to make sure you’re getting as much information that is available to you to make that decision. This certainly is crucial.”
In November 2005, Eugenia Martin-Ivie was working in a border booth — known as the primary inspection line — in Coutts, Alta. She received a printout alert that a highrisk individual with numerous vio- lence- and weapons-related convictions had been refused entry at the border in North Portal, Sask., and might seek to re-enter via Coutts.
Martin-Ivie became concerned when the individual had not been flagged in an internal CBSA database, which would have prompted an automatic “lookout” notice on officers’ computer screens.
She became even more concerned to learn that officers working in the secondary inspection areas had access to databases showing that the individual in question had a history of rape, assault and resisting arrest.
Worried that primary officers were not getting information about potentially dangerous individuals, Martin-Ivie and seven of her colleagues refused to work, citing Labour Code violations. An investigation by a health and safety officer with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada found that no danger existed and ordered the officers back to work. The decision was appealed to an officer with the Occupational Health and Safety Tribunal Canada.
During a hearing in late 2010, Martin-Ivie and the union argued that officers working the primary inspection lines should have “unfiltered” access to all the databases available to officers in secondary inspection areas — or at the very least access to “relevant information” contained in those databases. But witnesses for the CBSA said the border would effectively be shut down due to delays if officers had to search through each database for every traveller who wanted to enter Canada.