Entering Canada? No Problem!

Canada Border Services Agency

"Our goal at the border is to build the file to be able to identify non-genuine claims, and right now we're kind of relying on people to self-declare that they're a non-genuine claim."

"Claimants spend significantly less time meaningfully interacting with officers, with the result of reduced security for the sake of expediency."

"That was our opportunity to ask follow-up questions, make sure that the claim is genuine. We could look for things like indications of coaching, human smuggling, that kind of thing."

"We're not verifying anyone's story at all. The ability for us to confirm whether or not their story is genuine has really been removed." 

"To speed things up, because we are short-staffed, we are allowing people into the country without first doing ... security screening."

"It's exactly the people with the greatest motivation to not self-declare who are going to be the ones who don't self-declare and don't report back."

"They essentially disappear into Canada." 

Mark Weber, president, Customs and Immigration Union  

Find out if you're inadmissible to Canada

Find out why you could be denied a visa or refused entry to Canada.

Security screening

Learn why border services officers may perform security screenings to help them determine if you can enter Canada.

Enforcing immigration laws in Canada

Get information on when and why border services officers arrest, detain and remove citizens of other countries.

Airport arrival kiosks and eGates

Verify your identity and make an on-screen customs declaration at Canada's major international airports using primary inspection kiosks and eGates.

Canadian customs: Secondary inspections

Border officers may need more details about yourself, your children, your pets or belongings.

1. Canada.ca
2. National security and defence
3. Securing the border

So, above on the Canada.ca webpage the very basics of the entry-security-screening process is outlined. What to expect when entering Canada. Only that isn't exactly what happens any longer. A landslide of people declaring themselves refugees seeking haven, irregular migrants and others in like position have overwhelmed the screening capacity of border agents. It has become standard practice of late for border officials to make use of an 'honour system', a self-declaration on the part of a would-be entrant to Canada that they have no ulterior motives to come to the country, none at all, nossir!

The required number of personnel, the time it would take to conduct a proper security screening, entirely absent the process. Making a public statement to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration,  Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, frankly admitted that lack of personnel and a constricted time-schedule have mitigated against the basic necessity of screening entrants to the country and this, at a time of internal social and political turmoil in a background of external conflict. Both news reportage and word-of-mouth narratives of virtually unrestricted access to Canada will most certainly exacerbate an already troubling situation.

 

Where it is known that members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, of Hezbollah and Hamas, both listed terrorist groups in Canada, have located themselves within the country diligently working to defray the social contract, upturning Canadian values and customs, flouting the laws, dividing society in a rampage of intimidation and threats with those in authority barely blinking an eye, preferring to spout assurances, without supporting them with any level of actual control over a deteriorating social contract.

 

 

 

Any foreign national from whatever corner of the world can now appear at the border, declare themselves refugees, swear no illegal, criminal background, and no intention to wreak havoc in Canada, and be allowed entry. Filling out a security questionnaire can be accomplished through a smartphone app. Once in Canada as a refugee claimant, they are entitled to free health care, access to public schools, and work permits. Many among them receive further benefits, including housing and a daily living allowance. As though Canada doesn't have enough homeless and indigent Canadian-born demographics.

 

The federal government's Interim Housing Assistance Program released numbers last year indicating that some claimants receive free meals and hotel rooms costing $224 for each claimant, daily. While awaiting the processing of their claims, even those whose applications may be rejected, can spend several years waiting for their case to be  reviewed by immigration authorities. Yet the Canadian pubic should take heart; heading off hostile intentions to abuse the system is the assurance that entrants will "self-declare that they're here for no good".

 

Border guards no longer have the time to look for "patterns and flags" indicating an individual may pose a potential security threat. Because of the workload, the protocol is reduced to collecting basic personal and biometric data (fingerprints), then releasing refugee claimants to their own recognizance. Canada's backlog of refugees and refugee claimants is at an all-time high with the most recent Statistics Canada figure of 497,443. Back in 2015, when the Liberals under Justin Trudeau took power that number stood at 16,058.

 

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers greet refugees as they arrive on March 25, 2023 at the Roxham Road border crossing in Champlain, New York following the closing of the crossing the previous day (AFP / Lars Hagberg)

 

Over 100,000 'irregular' border crossers comprised of foreign nationals crossing illegally into Canada to declare asylum since 2017 have gained entry to await a final ruling of their application claims. A record number of foreign students claimed asylum last year timed as their study visa lapsed, amounting to 20,245 international students claiming asylum; an even higher number is anticipated for this year. 

 

There are approximately 8,500 frontline employees with the Canada Border Services Agency, a number that has not risen since 2012, back when a public service cut took place and CBSA lost 1,000 employees. That number of CBSA frontline workers have exponentially more work to do in carrying out their duties, at this time, given the spike in refugee claimants and irregular (illegal) border crossings.  

"The technology that we see the CBSA putting in place is all about self-declaration -- the refugee  claimant doing everything on their own because we simply don't have the staff to do the proper interviews and do what we did previously."

"[Canada's borders are increasingly being stripped of the] human element."

Mark Weber