Minister lauds programs for protecting Canadians
Blaney credits tip line for arrests of those on wanted list
MONTREAL — Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Steven Blaney went over details Monday of two federal programs that have helped remove people wanted for crimes in other countries and prevented American sex offenders from entering Canada.
At a news conference at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Dorval on Monday, he said more than 150 convicted U.S. sex offenders have been denied entry to Canada in the last three years.
Also, under the program “Wanted by the CBSA,” 51 criminals on the Canada Border Services Agency’s wanted list have been intercepted since the program was set up in 2011, Blaney said, while adding that more than 30 were identified in the last 12 months.
Blaney credited information supplied by ordinary citizens through a tip line for contributing to the arrests of most of the people on the CBSA list.
“This approach allowed us to augment the tools in the arsenal of (CBSA) to track these dangerous individuals and, with these partners, we can improve security in this country,” Blaney said.
The program was put in place three years ago in an effort to help CBSA locate people who were declared inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Some of the first people to make the wanted list — which is posted online with mug shots of the individuals — included suspected war criminals charged with crimes abroad. It has also included individuals suspected of terrorist activity, involvement in organized crime or who entered Canada without revealing their criminal record. Eighteen men are on the CBSA’s online list and, when questioned Monday, Blaney did not provide details on what merits inclusion on it.
One of the people sought on CBSA’s current list is Gustavo Alfredo Henriquez Aruguijo, a 58-year-old man from Honduras whose last known address was in Montreal. According to the website he is “the subject of an active Canada-wide warrant for removal because he is inadmissible to Canada. It has been determined that he violated human or international rights under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act or under international law.”
The other program Blaney touted helped Canada turn away more than 150 convicted sex offenders since it was put in place in May 2012. It involves an exchange of officers between the CBSA’s National Targeting Centre and the American law enforcement organization that shares the same name. Blaney described the program as a “reinforced partnership” that streamlined the sharing of information. It was part of an agreement reached between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama in 2011.