AIRPORT, PORT WORKERS MAY BE SUBJECT TO STRIP SEARCHES

Canada's border guards could soon get new powers to strip search
employees in airport and ports across Canada in a bid to crack down on
the smuggling of illegal drugs, such as marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine.

CBSA officers also would be allowed to frisk employees and to use
various types of scanners and detectors to examine goods in their
possession. The proposed new regulations, which do not have to be
passed by Parliament, would apply to everyone whose work requires them
to be in proposed new customs-controlled areas, regardless of whether
they are baggage handlers or ambulance attendants responding to an
emergency.

All that would be needed to frisk employees or trigger a strip search
would be for a CBSA officer to have reasonable grounds to believe a
worker in a customs-controlled area is smuggling something illegal.
While the proposed regulations can require CBSA officers to require
someone to open their mouth during a strip search, they also would
have to conduct the strip search in a private area.

Currently, border officers have limited powers to search employees as
they leave a customs area. Under the proposed changes, they will have
the power to search employees within a customs-controlled area.