Canada: Our Troublesome Northern ‘Friend’

The incident is illustrative of the difference in ideology between U.S. and Canadian authorities as regards issues of border security, smuggling, and terrorism. And it was one in a string of similar incidents. Although the border agents’ union, CEUDA, had been arguing for decades that border guards needed to be armed, the Canadian government refused to consider seriously its concerns. The longest border between two countries in the world, the U.S.-Canadian border stretches over 4,000 miles, much of that rural, and contains some 1200 crossing points. Several thousand people cross that border every day, and checkpoints are loosely guarded because of economics, geographical obstacles (such as the vast Boundary Waters Canoe Area between Minnesota and Ontario), and Canada’s historically lax attitude toward its security. Ironically, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had addressed the issue just a month before the walk-out, telling the press that the Canadian government would begin arming border agents beginning in September, over the next ten years. That means that today, in April of 2007, the vast majority of Canadian border patrol still do not carry a weapon. Algerian Ahmed Ressam entered Canada in 1994 with a fraudulent French passport and was granted immediate refugee status. Based in Montreal and in Vancouver, he spent five years working with al-Qaeda to procure weapons. Finally, he loaded up his car with explosives and made for a border crossing between British Columbia and Washington State, intent on bombing Los Angeles International Airport. A U.S. border agent noted that Ressam behaved nervously, and asked to search the vehicle. The arsenal was discovered, and the plot was interrupted - all by chance. By the time of the 9-11 crisis, the security at the Canadian border had already become a joke. But following information that at least one of the 9-11 terrorists had crossed into the U.S. from Canada, the Liberal-controlled Canadian government, in an effort to save some face, announced that December it had signed with the U.S. a Joint Statement of Cooperation on Border Security and Regional Migration Issues. This would put in place multi-agency teams from both countries to better integrate border security enforcement efforts. But although it resulted in increased communications between agencies, with unarmed Canadian agents still walking off their jobs, it was really a bureaucratic show without much substance. In July of 2005, three men were arrested in Seattle for smuggling and distributing marijuana across the border, using an elaborately constructed tunnel that ran from a hut on the Canada side, to a house in Washington state, over 110 meters long. The reasons why - from the American point of view - Canada will not step up and seriously assist our efforts to defend ourselves in the wake of 9-11, are complex and long-standing. Simply, Canada has felt a need to distinguish itself from its powerful southern neighbor. In an effort to preserve a unique identity, some of its more liberal factions - both in the governmental and private sectors - have persisted in opposing American ideology in order to establish a pure Canadian ideology. This combines with social devotion to multi-culturalism and political correctness (to an even greater extent than in the U.S.) to create a public suspicious of American motives, and defensive toward their traditional friend to the south. Unfortunately, given the world unrest, misplaced Canadian pride has become our inconvenience, and a real threat to the security of both nations. Although a Conservative government took power in Canada January 2006, little real change has taken place since. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=935140# [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 2, 2007]

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