Border Integrity contributes to the national security of Canada and protects Canadians from terrorism, organized crime and other border-related criminality, while allowing for the secure and effective international movement of people and goods.
This is carried out in partnership with international and domestic government agencies, domestic stakeholders and the community at large.
Border Integrity is responsible for enforcement issues related to Canada’s borders and comprises the following Branches:
A Word from the Director General of RCMP Border Integrity:
Securing the Canada/U.S. border - Facts, Fiction and Realities
Canada and the United States have always enjoyed a special relationship and lying at the very heart of that relationship is a nearly 9,000 kilometer long line on the map.
Not surprising then, that when the United States celebrated its bicentennial in 1976, Canada’s official gift was a book about the border, entitled, appropriately, “Between Friends.”
To Canadians and Americans, to people around the world, our border was “a lesson of peace to all nations”.
And then came September 11
th .
Suddenly, Americans looked to their northern border not with feelings of comfort, but of concern; our shared frontier no longer viewed as an example to other nations, but perceived as a threat.
Canadians quickly understood that the attacks of September 11
th did more than change the skyline of a city - they transformed the psychology of a nation, making security the centrepiece of our relationship. And, nowhere was that more evident than with respect to the border.
I’d like to outline some of the measures that RCMP Border Integrity has taken since the terrible events of September 11
th .
Beyond the
what , I’d also like to discuss the
why - the reasoning behind our approach and the philosophy that has guided our actions. But let me first address some of the myths that have emerged since September 11
th .
...Today we face many myths when it comes to discussing the Canada-U.S. border....
Myths are powerful things. They can shape our attitudes, colour our views and cloud our judgements. Today we face many myths when it comes to discussing the Canada-U.S. border. Myths that are indeed persistent and persuasive. Myths that need to be dispelled if we are to address the real issues before us.
Myth number one:Some of the terrorists involved in the attacks of September 11
th came through Canada.
This falsehood emerged soon after the events of that terrible day and, unfortunately, continues to be repeated today. So let’s lay this to rest: not one terrorist involved in 9-11 came through Canada. Period.
Myth number two:The northern and southern American borders pose an equal threat to American security.
The reality is that they are significantly different - not only with respect to size and geography, but especially with respect to the scale of illegal activities.
In February of 2007, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, testified before a Congressional hearing and reported, that “99% of the people who come across the border illegally...come from the southern border.” Ninety-nine percent! Just one percent of people entering the United States illegally do so through Canada. So the northern and southern borders are very different.
Myth number three:Canada is a haven for terrorists.
It’s hard to know where this started, but it may have come from the arrest of Ahmed Ressam in late 1999, the so-called “Millennium Bomber” who entered the United States via Canada. This led some in the U.S. to assume that where there was one, there must be more - perhaps many more.
The fact is, threats go both ways and we have an inventory of the groups operating inside our borders. As the Director General of the RCMP Border Integrity Program, I’m under no illusions and I think Canadians understand that terrorism represents a direct threat to our way of life as well. It is not just an
American concern and it is not just America’s problem to solve.
While the RCMP and U.S. law enforcement agencies have always had a cooperative working relationship, today we are working together more closely than ever - sharing intelligence, threat assessments, resources and technology on a daily basis. We’ve developed joint security strategies and strengthened our team work which is keeping North America safer.
For our part, following September 11
th , the RCMP took a hard look at all of our border-related programs and decided to re-group them under a single umbrella to improve coordination. What emerged was the Border Integrity Program - a multi-faceted approach to land, marine and air security. Multi-faceted in that it’s not all just about the border.
That might surprise some people.
With so much of today’s discussion being about “thickening the border” or “strengthening the border,” I think we’ve forgotten that the border is only one step along a much larger continuum - and sometimes one of the last steps.
In fact, even if Canada and the United States were to station guards every 10 feet across the entire length of our border, we would still not stop cross-border criminality. Nor would we strike at the criminal organizations or terrorist cells that are the source of the plots and the dangers.
...We need to stop the criminals, the terrorists, before they get anywhere near the border. We must detect their intentions and disrupt their operations...
While some people see the border as our first line of defence, it should be looked at as one of the last lines of defence. We need to stop the criminals, the terrorists, before they get anywhere near the border. We must detect their intentions and disrupt their operations.
All of that requires better intelligence and closer integration - sharing information across borders, across jurisdictions, across the world.
And it requires a perspective that looks beyond simply a line on the map.
I want to be clear: I’m not saying that the border doesn’t matter. Of course it does. It’s an important line of demarcation. It’s a highly visible location where successful law enforcement is demonstrated for everyone to see, and it’s one place where the criminals are vulnerable.
But it’s the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The vast majority of the problem lies hidden in Canadian cities, in America’s heartland, overseas, and in distant hills.
It’s there that the plots are hatched. It’s there that people are recruited and trained. It’s there that the money is held and divvied up. It’s there that the brains of these operations reside. And it’s there that control is exercised.
The people we catch at the borders are often expendable. In many cases, they’re the small fry who do their masters’ bidding. Stopping them is critical, of course. But stopping them
before they get there is also our goal.
A single-minded focus on the border is too limiting for other reasons as well.
First is the emergence of domestic terrorists.
These are people who live among us, hold our citizenship, have no criminal records and who are free to travel between our countries - or further abroad.
This is a new dimension to the terrorist threat — one we need to understand better, and one that border controls simply don’t address.
Second, the incredible power of the internet to connect and combine forces, across continents, in virtual anonymity, enables terrorists to transfer funds, steal identities and organize plots without going anywhere near the border.
Third, and finally, directing all our efforts to the border often produces unintended consequences. One quick example, from the U.S. Congressional Research Service Report on Border Security.
Quote: “..border fencing (has lead to) the proliferation of tunnels dug underneath the border. In San Diego, where the double-layer Sandia fencing has been constructed, smugglers have dug a number of tunnels (including one) almost a kilometer long, built from reinforced concrete - evidence of a rather sophisticated smuggling operation.” End quote.
The point is that if criminals can’t get
through the border, they’ll go around it , over it, or under it - their activities displaced, but not stopped.
So yes, we need to do everything we can to make border enforcement rigorous, but because the problem is more complex than that, so too must be our response.
Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETs) have been one of the great success stories of our post 9-11 relationship and I think point the way to how our two countries need to approach issues of security in the future.
These are intelligence-based binational groups that share information and collaborate on a daily basis with local, state and provincial agencies on issues of national security, organized crime and other cross-border crime. They are taking a broader response.
IBETs are made up of the core agencies from both nations - the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Coast Guard, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency - all working together, in an integrated collaborative fashion; sharing information and intelligence, and liasing with local, state and provincial law enforcement agencies, resulting in a a thorough and clear picture of the threats we face.
One of the key aspects of the IBET program - and one of the reasons for its success - is the placing of law enforcement personnel from one country alongside personnel from the other’s. We have U.S. officers working alongside of us in Canada and we have RCMP agents working in the U.S.
So real integration. Real sharing of information. In real time. Expediting investigations, working in sync instead of in silos, with real success.
Of course, the RCMP is involved in a number of other areas of border security. We have enhanced our ability to investigate organized crime at Canada’s busiest marine ports, we have teamed up with the United States Coast Guard on establishing a longer-term partnership to increase security on our shared waterways, and together with the U.S. Border Patrol, we have deployed sensing technology to identify and intercept cross-border criminality.
The effectiveness of this international cooperation was recently noted by Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff who said, “we have a very good relationship with the Canadians from an intelligence standpoint, so that we are confident that we can get a good picture of who the threats are that might be coming in through the north.” end quote.
So, real progress, on many fronts. Progress that recognizes that when it comes to keeping our people safe,
securing the border does not
begin at the border, nor does it
end there. We understand the need for a balanced approach. A multi-faceted approach. An intelligence-led approach.
Today, we are joined as never before, in a fight against common threats to our common security. In those efforts, we bring complementary strengths and an unwavering resolve.
We have seen substantial improvement in our ability to share information, coordinate investigations and enforce the law. Together, we are making our border more secure than it has ever been. And our people safer from terrorist attack.
Is there more to do? Of course. Will we catch every bad guy? No. But by pooling resources and dispelling the myths, we’ll be able to take a clear-eyed view of the work still to do.
The RCMP link is
here.
(
Ed. note: Thanks to our neighbor to the north and BE reader Rod Pugh for the story.)
