A Canada Border Services Agency report found federal agents confiscated tens of thousands of firearms that were being sent through cross-border mail.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, this represents the first comprehensive data on the extent of gun smuggling.“Ninety-six percent of Canada Border Services Agency firearm seizures, which includes parts, magazines and ammunition, occurred in the postal mode,” said the report Evaluation of the Detector Dog Service Program. Auditors reported between 2018 and 2022, agents confiscated 71,003 firearms. Of this total, 68,338 were determined contraband and had been transported through cross-border mail.According to the Canada Post Corporation Act, only postal inspectors are authorized to intercept suspicious packages in transit, not the police.On June 6, the Senate approved the Second Reading of Bill S-256 Act to Amend the Canada Post Corporation Act. The purpose of this bill is to give the police the ability to intercept suspicious parcels while they are in transit.“Traffickers have spread the word that there is much less risk of their packages being intercepted if they send them through Canada Post rather than through any other private courier company such as FedEx, UPS, Purolator or DHL,” Senator Claude Carignan (QC), sponsor of Bill S-256, earlier told the Senate.“This bill will finally close the loophole that traffickers have been exploiting in the Canada Post Corporation Act. This loophole, which only applies to items sent by Canada Post and not through other courier companies, means that traffickers prefer to do business with Canada Post.”The cabinet admitted it lacks knowledge regarding the exact number of guns smuggled into Canada through road, rail or marine freight.“The total number of firearms successfully smuggled into Canada is unknown,” the department of public safety wrote in a 2022 briefing note Efforts to Address Firearms Smuggling and Trafficking.“Canadians want their government to reduce gun violence and we are taking bold action to limit criminal access to firearms,” said the briefing note. “We are providing the Canada Border Services Agency with the tools and resources needed to combat smuggling and trafficking, such as X-ray machines, parcel scanners and detector dogs.”The Evaluation report revealed detector dogs cost $7.7 million yearly but had little success tracking down smuggled firearms.Dog teams were more effective in frightening smugglers, wrote analysts.“There are admissions by travellers of having prohibited or regulated goods once a Border Services officer informs them that a detector dog team will be called to search them.”
