BORDER GUARDS MAY GET NEW POWERS

Would Include Right To Strip-Search Airport, Port Workers

OTTAWA - 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.

Canadian Border Service Agency 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 and
those areas will cover more of an airport or port than current customs
areas.

The regulations are part of the government's efforts to stem the
tide of illegal drugs being smuggled into Canada by organized crime.
It's a multimillion-dollar trade the government says is flourishing
with the help of airport and dock workers who are either planted in
jobs or recruited after they start.

"oeSome individuals with unrestricted access to secure areas of
airports and marine terminals, such as mechanics, baggage handlers and
longshoremen ... are suspected to be involved in internal
conspiracies," the government says in the notice of the proposed
regulation.

The government points to a 2008 study by the RCMP that concluded 58
organized crime groups were using Canada's major airports for
illegal activities.

For example, in 2007, eight people were arrested and charged with drug
offences relating to the trafficking of 39 kilograms of ecstasy
tablets, three kilograms of cocaine and eight pounds of marijuana.
About $106,000 in cash also was seized.

"oeThis group had members of their criminal network operating within
the airport who were able to use their positions to move drugs and
money to and from Canada," the government wrote.

In a bid to attack the problem, the government amended the Customs Act
in 2009 to set up new customs-controlled areas (CCA) in locations
where travellers and domestic workers could come into contact with
people or goods that have not yet been cleared by the CBSA.

The controlled areas, which are not yet in place, will be phased in
over three years starting with Canada's three largest airports:
Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Pierre Elliott
Trudeau International Airport in Montreal and Vancouver International
Airport.