Customs agents want to pack heat

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by George Maddux

Yes, that is a gun in their pocket and no, they're still not happy to see you. That might come to mind when you re-enter Canada if the Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise (CEUDA) wins the right to bear arms.

"There is not one other Canadian police force expected to enforce the Criminal Code that is not armed," says John King, head of the 10,000-member union. "Whenever there is a high- value narcotics seizure on display for the media there's always an armed tactical unit guarding it, yet our employer expects us to make the initial seizures and arrests on the assumption that the criminal element will always cooperate with us." King notes that environment, fisheries, conservation and police officers all carry weapons, whereas customs officers are expected to enforce 70 acts of parliament without guns.

The CEUDA has polled its members on the issue, with results to be announced any day. King says the proof that their Canada Customs employers are "not dealing in good faith" was evidenced two years ago when union requests for soft body armour were ignored, a situation resolved, embarrassingly when Americans donated bulletproofs vests to the Canadian force. "We need the ability to respond to armed, violent offenders before they enter our communities," says King. A Canada Customs spokesman tells the Mirror there are no plans to allow customs officers to carry arms anytime soon.