Canadian border guards have been charged with hundreds of acts of misconduct over the past two years, including preferential treatment and criminal association, according to documents obtained by CBC News.
Details of the cases, all of which are considered well-founded, were published under the Access to Information Act and cover the period from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2022.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it had completed 92 well-founded investigations in the last fiscal year. Of these, 12 saw border agents verbally reprimanded, 42 issued a written reprimand, and 38 were suspended.
This figure is substantially lower than in 2020, the first year in which there was a reduction in travel due to the pandemic. In 2020, the CBSA reported 215 well-founded cases that resulted in nine dismissals, 82 suspensions, 52 written warnings and 27 verbal warnings. (The figures do not say what happened in the other cases.)
A CBSA spokesman said the agency considers a complaint “well-founded” if it considers “aspects” of it to be “valid.”
Although details of these cases, including names and locations, are written in documents published on CBC News, they describe some worrying behavior at land and air crossings.
In one case, it was found that an officer had not properly processed the passengers and license plates of the vehicle, a key component of the job, for three years.
In another, an agent accessed the CBSA’s computer system to remove flags from someone’s file. Flags are indicators related to a person’s criminal or travel history that are intended to warn CBSA officials that a particular traveler requires a closer look.
A well-founded investigation report only said the officer in question posed a “security risk” and could “damage the agency’s reputation.”
Ties to Hell’s Angels
The documents also describe several well-founded criminal association cases, including one involving an officer who “provided [a] fake name when police stopped him while he was having dinner [a] cocaine smuggler “and another involving an officer linked to the Hell’s Angels.
A handful of cases involved agents involved in sexual harassment: in one case, sexually assaulting a colleague while on duty, spraying insect repellent on a partner’s crotch, and sending sexually explicit messages or photographs. explicit in others.
Other cases investigated involved interpersonal grievances, such as employees spreading rumors among themselves.
The president of the Customs and Immigration Union said he believes the CBSA’s approach to discipline sometimes goes too far. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press)
Allegations are usually reviewed by CBSA management through the disciplinary process. If the allegations are serious enough, a senior investigator from the agency’s security and professional standards department will initiate a formal investigation.
“The CBSA has a responsibility to address misconduct in the workplace and this obligation is taken seriously. The CBSA’s management addresses allegations of misconduct,” said CBSA spokesman Patrick Mahaffy.
“Discipline is managed on a case-by-case basis, and discipline is dictated based on the severity of the allegations and takes into account mitigating and aggravating factors.”
Union leader says CBSA environment “cold, clinical”
But Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, said he believes the CBSA goes too far in its approach to discipline.
“Serious things are absolutely investigated, and a lot of things are also investigated that shouldn’t go into a formal investigation,” he said. “Discipline does not have to be punitive. It is supposed to be corrective.”
While Weber acknowledged that some of the grounded cases are serious, he called the agency’s approach to discipline “extreme.”
“Everything is very cold, clinically,” he said.
“Over the years, what we’ve noticed is that the agency has become very formal. Things that used to be discussed between a manager and an employee with a conversation … ‘You could have done it differently and it would have been better. “… everything at CBSA has been centralized and turned into an official email, an official investigation that often happens weeks or months after the event.”
The CBSA remains one of the only public safety agencies in Canada without an independent public oversight body.
Although the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency oversees CBSA’s national security activities, members of the public should take their complaints about CBSA’s services directly to the agency. , which handles them internally.
Last month, the federal government announced plans to reintroduce legislation to allow travelers and detainees for immigration to complain to an independent agency if they feel they have been mistreated by the Canada Border Agency.
“Ultimately, this legislation seeks to strengthen our law enforcement agencies by strengthening accountability, transparency … and will lead to a safer country for all,” said the Minister of Public Security. , Marco Mendicino, whose portfolio includes the CBSA.
New complaints commission under construction
Bill C-20 (earlier versions died in the order paper) would replace the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, the monitoring agency that lodges public complaints about the RCMP, with a Review and Complaints Commission. Public that would handle complaints about both the RCMP and the CBSA.
Weber said he is concerned that the C-20 is putting even more pressure on a strained relationship between the employer and employees at the CBSA.
“We have a businessman who is already very heavy in terms of discipline,” he said. “Our members are regularly placed on unpaid leave, sometimes for a year or more, pending the outcome of investigations.”
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino introduced a bill last month to allow people to complain to an independent body if they feel they have been abused by the CBSA. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press)
If the bill is passed, the new Public Complaints and Review Commission could conduct reviews of any CBSA activity that does not involve national security issues, either on its own initiative or at the request of the Minister.
Weber said he would like the new body to take on managerial misconduct as well.
He said that if a complaint “points to a systemic problem”, the commission should address the issue “instead of addressing everything to the only person with whom the traveler interacts”.
He said CBSA officials are often stranded “working overtime mandatory hours” and sometimes prosecuting “hundreds of people” a day.
“Depending on what happens in that circumstance, that could be the reason for the complaints,” he said.
Bill C-20 is still pending second reading in the House of Commons.