The British Columbia-Washington border was effectively closed Sunday when about 60 Canadian guards walked away from their posts after hearing that a murder suspect was approaching. The closure of four border crossings clogged traffic for several hours.
U.S. Homeland Security warned the Canadian police that the “armed and dangerous” criminal was heading north from California and might try to cross the border. The unarmed Canadian guards have the right to leave duty if they believe their safety is threatened.
Canadian border guards have walked away from their posts about 50 times in the last year because of safety threats, including seven or eight times in B.C., according to the head of the border-workers’ union. “I’m very sorry it has to happen,” George Scott of the Customs Excise Union told CanWest News. ”But people are entitled to do a work refusal if they feel they’re in danger.”
The Canadian government plans to arm the border guards starting in 2007 but has said it will take about 10 years to fully implement the plan.
Comments
4 responses to “Border clogged in security scare”
Entertaining. I have had a NEXUS pass for several years now and it often saves quite a bit of time when things are backed up at the border each way. At least in this case, when they reopened the border, you’d be near the front of the queue.
http://getnexus.com/
Border guards walking away from threats… That headline does wonders for Canada’s image. Who is in charge of PR over in Can?
The problem is bigger than PR. There must be plenty of people in BC who are miffed that the guards won’t do their jobs.
meacham, if you lived in Canada, you would not be “miffed” that a gov official isn’t doing his job. It would be part for the course.