The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is facing scrutiny after an internal audit revealed that its multi-million-dollar program to monitor contraband, including firearms smuggling, has failed to demonstrate any meaningful impact on curbing cross-border gun smuggling. Blacklock's Reporter says the audit comes in the wake of 2023 reports indicating that seizures of illegal firearms have been exceedingly rare.“Numerous data issues prevented an assessment of program effectiveness,” auditors wrote in the report. “When data was available, it was often incomplete, under-reported, or mis-reported, a challenge that affects the program.”The CBSA's Intelligence Collection and Analysis Program, which costs an average of $87.9 million annually, is intended to support the federal government's commitment to enhancing national security. “The program leads the national collection of intelligence and analysis production on contraband issues such as drug trafficking, firearms smuggling, and trade-based money laundering,” stated the report, titled Evaluation Of The Intelligence Collection And Analysis Program.However, the audit found that the program's recordkeeping was so disorganized that it was impossible to determine its effectiveness in addressing contraband issues, particularly firearms smuggling. “While there was general consensus from various stakeholders that program activities lead to the disruption of criminal activities, there is currently no way to measure the extent to which this takes place nor its impact,” the report concluded.The Department of Public Safety, in a 2022 briefing note titled Efforts To Address Firearms Smuggling And Trafficking, acknowledged that it did not know how many firearms were successfully smuggled into Canada from the United States. The scale of the problem is daunting, with more than 14 million shipments of commercial goods crossing the border annually. The Customs and Immigration Union, in testimony before the Commons public safety committee in 2022, highlighted the near impossibility of intercepting illegal firearms smuggled in railway freight cars.“There is almost a zero percent chance that any illegal weapons entering the country via rail will ever be found,” testified Mark Weber, the union's national president. He criticized the latitude given to rail carriers, saying it exceeds that afforded to any other industry, including trucking and air transport. “The Canada Border Services Agency has not forced rail carriers to provide rail inspection facilities at the first point of arrival, this despite their legal ability to do so,” Weber added, noting that rail inspections at border crossings “are virtually non-existent.”Further emphasizing the problem, a 2022 Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons revealed that Customs agents did not seize any contraband from train cars over a four-year period. “The Canada Border Services Agency did not seize any illegal items from train cars for the years 2018 to 2021 inclusively,” the Inquiry confirmed.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is facing scrutiny after an internal audit revealed that its multi-million-dollar program to monitor contraband, including firearms smuggling, has failed to demonstrate any meaningful impact on curbing cross-border gun smuggling. Blacklock's Reporter says the audit comes in the wake of 2023 reports indicating that seizures of illegal firearms have been exceedingly rare.“Numerous data issues prevented an assessment of program effectiveness,” auditors wrote in the report. “When data was available, it was often incomplete, under-reported, or mis-reported, a challenge that affects the program.”The CBSA's Intelligence Collection and Analysis Program, which costs an average of $87.9 million annually, is intended to support the federal government's commitment to enhancing national security. “The program leads the national collection of intelligence and analysis production on contraband issues such as drug trafficking, firearms smuggling, and trade-based money laundering,” stated the report, titled Evaluation Of The Intelligence Collection And Analysis Program.However, the audit found that the program's recordkeeping was so disorganized that it was impossible to determine its effectiveness in addressing contraband issues, particularly firearms smuggling. “While there was general consensus from various stakeholders that program activities lead to the disruption of criminal activities, there is currently no way to measure the extent to which this takes place nor its impact,” the report concluded.The Department of Public Safety, in a 2022 briefing note titled Efforts To Address Firearms Smuggling And Trafficking, acknowledged that it did not know how many firearms were successfully smuggled into Canada from the United States. The scale of the problem is daunting, with more than 14 million shipments of commercial goods crossing the border annually. The Customs and Immigration Union, in testimony before the Commons public safety committee in 2022, highlighted the near impossibility of intercepting illegal firearms smuggled in railway freight cars.“There is almost a zero percent chance that any illegal weapons entering the country via rail will ever be found,” testified Mark Weber, the union's national president. He criticized the latitude given to rail carriers, saying it exceeds that afforded to any other industry, including trucking and air transport. “The Canada Border Services Agency has not forced rail carriers to provide rail inspection facilities at the first point of arrival, this despite their legal ability to do so,” Weber added, noting that rail inspections at border crossings “are virtually non-existent.”Further emphasizing the problem, a 2022 Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons revealed that Customs agents did not seize any contraband from train cars over a four-year period. “The Canada Border Services Agency did not seize any illegal items from train cars for the years 2018 to 2021 inclusively,” the Inquiry confirmed.
