CBSA launches new training to intercept fugitive vessels in Canadian waters

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has announced a new initiative to train officers in boarding fugitive vessels at sea, enhancing maritime security in Canadian waters.

Blacklock's Reporter says the move comes as part of efforts to address risks associated with intercepting vessels that are underway or anchored offshore.

“The Agency has a requirement for a ‘boarding at sea’ course,” CBSA stated in a contract notice.

The training program, valued at $198,296, has been awarded to Survival Systems Training of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

The course aims to equip officers with the skills needed to safely and effectively board vessels, acknowledging the unique health and safety challenges of operating in open water.

“The goal of the boarding at sea training would be to provide marine officers who are required to board at sea with proper training in order to better understand the risks which they may experience when boarding at sea in Canadian waters,” the agency wrote.

While CBSA has not explained the urgency behind the program, it builds on previous efforts to strengthen border security.

In 2012, the Conservative government launched the Shiprider program in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard. The program, authorized under the Framework Agreement On Integrated Cross-Border Maritime Law Enforcement Operations, enabled joint patrols in shared waterways, including the Great Lakes, Detroit River, and British Columbia’s Strait of Georgia.

“Circumstances in which they are allowed to enter the country to begin with are limited and carefully controlled and monitored,” then-Public Safety Minister Vic Toews assured Parliament in 2013.

The Shiprider initiative involved training officers to board fleeing vessels and arrest suspects. A 2019 audit of the program reported 2,381 incidents, primarily related to smuggling, though details were not disclosed.

The audit noted an increasing threat to Canadian and U.S. waterways from drug and contraband smuggling.

Despite its successes, the audit identified gaps in performance data, leaving questions about the specific outcomes of Shiprider patrols, including the interception of illegal immigrants or seizures of narcotics and contraband tobacco.