Customs Agents Did Not Seize Any Contraband From Trains for 4 Years: Federal Records

A Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) patch is seen on a CBSA officer’s uniform in Tsawwassen, B.C. on Dec. 16, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

Canada’s customs agents did not seize any contraband by rail over a four-year period before 2022, federal records show.

“The CBSA [Canada Border Services Agency] did not seize any illegal items from train cars for the years 2018 to 2021 inclusively,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Adam Chambers last November, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

The inquiry had asked for the number of trains the CBSA “physically inspected” since 2018, and of those inspected, “how many contained illegal items.”

A search for contraband by rail saw that the agency confiscated $1.8 million worth of smuggled cigarettes, beer and liquor by Nov. 28 of 2022. A shipment of 780 knives was also seized.

The total combined seizure count in 2022 is four, according to the records, whereas from 2018 to 2021, the count is zero each year.

‘Zero Percent’

In a 2022 briefing note obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, the federal Department of Public Safety said it did not know how many guns were smuggled into the country.

“The total number of firearms successfully smuggled into Canada is unknown,” said the note, titled “Efforts To Address Firearms Smuggling And Trafficking.”

Testifying before the Commons public safety committee on Feb. 1, Mark Weber, national president of Customs and Immigration Union, said the border screening measures for rail cargo are so ill-equipped that only a small portion of smuggled guns ever get seized.

“Perhaps most glaring of all are the rail mode operations, where, according to the union’s own data, as of 2019, only one one-millionth of all rail cargo was effectively being examined,” Weber said.

“Canada has almost zero examination capabilities directly at the border, due in part to geographical issues, inadequate tools, and political decisions not to force rail carriers to supply the necessary facilities.”

“In other words, there’s almost a zero percent chance that any illegal weapons entering the country via rail will ever be found,” he added.

‘Weaknesses’

A 2015 report by the Auditor General of Canada on “controlling exports at the border” said the CBSA “did not review all export declarations” and “did not examine many targeted high-risk shipments” between April 2013 and December 2014.

“During the period of our audit, the Agency did not examine approximately 20 percent of the high-risk shipments that had been identified by its centralized targeting units,” the federal auditors said.

“As a result, some goods that did not comply with Canada’s export control laws were leaving the country.”

The report said it was important to rectify those issues.

“This is important because addressing these weaknesses and limitations would enable the Agency to prevent more non-compliant shipments from being exported, thereby better protecting Canada and its allies, fighting organized crime, and meeting Canada’s international obligations,” it said.