SLOBODIAN: Too little, too late on border security

Last week the Liberals announced two newly leased Black Hawk helicopters would be operational Friday, to assist the RCMP with patrolling the Canada-US border in between ports.This was treacherously close to zero hour — US President Donald Trump’s threat to slap a 25% tariff on products immediately upon returning to the Oval Office Monday if Canada didn’t beef up border security. He won’t tolerate any more illegals including terrorists, and deadly opioids mainly fentanyl, crossing into the US from Canada, Mexico, or China.“We are hopeful — and remain hopeful — that the new incoming administration will understand just how incredibly serious we are on this northern border,” said Public Safety Minister David McGuinty when the $5.3 million lease of the Black Hawks from “an Ontario aviation company” was announced Wednesday.The Liberals only scrambled to get “incredibly serious” after Trump scared the pants off Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who still clung to hope of staying in power — with the tariff threat in November.How long have the Liberals ignored pleas and warnings from those on the ground — RCMP and Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) struggling to protect our borders? How long have the RCMP petitioned to no avail for more helicopters and equipment?It was reported Monday that Trump won’t immediately levy tariffs and might even soften the percentage. But the Liberals didn’t know that.They had cobbled together Canada’s Border Plan, a $1.3 billion border security package announced in December.But how “incredibly serious” are they?Well, the $1.3 billion they scrounged up is a fraction of the $20+ billion they sent to Ukraine, that we would be foolish to believe was all honourably spent to protect its borders. Not to put too fine a point on it, we have spent more to defend Ukraine's borders, than our own.The addition of two Black Hawks brings the RCMPs helicopter fleet to 11. Of the nine that were already deployed “six of those specifically do proactive patrols in various parts of the country,” said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Bryan Larkin.Sixty new drones will be deployed.The Black Hawks will give the RCMP “significant coast-to-coast-to-coast coverage,” said Larkin. Define significant.No question the Black Hawks are superior birds that outperform helicopters in the fleet. These two are equipped with cameras capable of thermal imaging. One is capable of hoisting operations, wrote RCMP spokesperson Robin Percival in an email to the Western Standard.But can eight RCMP helicopters, six of them patrolling the northern border part time — even with the drones — effectively monitor the 9,000-kilometre stretch of the Canada-US border?“Of the fleet, six occasionally provide border surveillance and support in specific regions,” wrote Percival.As for the Black Hawks, the RCMP is “now leveraging chartering and leasing options to enable the quickest operational response.”“More specifically, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) issued two separate call-ups (contracts) against an existing Standing Offer Agreement each one to charter one helicopter for a period of eleven weeks from Helicopter Transport Services.”Do the Black Hawks just fly home after 11 weeks?The northern border plan will include more mobile surveillance towers and the purchase of new technology including X-rays, mobile x-rays, and hand-held chemical analysers.Another two Black Hawks are supposed to be on the way. When? Before or after the Canadian Armed Forces navy ships and F-35 fighter jets promised a decade ago, and 12 submarines recently promised by Trudeau, arrive?Trump’s exposure of weak border security forced the Liberals to act.But after getting publicly spanked, Trudeau got all cocky and thumped his little chest threatening this and that — including retaliatory tariffs that would trigger a crippling trade war.He obviously never read Trump’s The Art of the Deal.The First Ministers — sans Alberta Premier Danielle Smith who, unlike them, is trying foster cooperation to achieve mutual Canada-US results — met on January 15. They waved their pompoms for Team Canada, willingly jumping into Trudeau’s divisive trap, and despicably declared war on Alberta. READ MOREHANNAFORD: Smith alone among the premiers but a head taller than any of them And so, attention has shifted away from this band-aid the Liberals put on a national security problem that has reached a “crisis” on their watch. READ MORESLOBODIAN: What if Trudeau’s ‘folly’ is by design? Trudeau’s intent is to vilify Trump, portray him as petty, unreasonable.The CBC obliged with a January 15 headline that read: Canada sending Black Hawks, drones to border as the clock to pacify Trump ticks down.Pacify? Get some perspective! US Customs and Border ProtectionReported that 1,199 people on the terror watch were apprehended trying to cross from Canada into the US between fiscal 2022 and October 2024.Meanwhile at least 350 gangs in Canada are trafficking fentanyl within our country and to Australia and the US.CBSA is the first line of defence enforcing the law at 1,200 ports of entry in Canada.“The CBSA employs a number of tools to stem the flow of illegal and prohibited goods into Canada,” wrote CBSA spokesman Luke Reimer in an email.They include contraband detection tools like handheld devices, small-scale and large-scale X-ray machines, and detector dogs.CBSA now has more than 80 canine teams that intercept illegal drugs. More will be trained and deployed.The grovelling and on rare occasion Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the Liberal border plan “phenomenal.”Is it really? Or is some of it a Liberal sleight of hand that puts the rest of Canada at risk?RCMP and CBSA said they can handle a potential surge of 700,000 illegals living in border states who might try to flee to Canada to avoid Trump’s plan to evict millions in a sweeping campaign.Both agencies are severely encumbered by severe staff shortages. But an undisclosed number of extra RCMP and CBSA personnel will be deployed to the northern border.The RCMP said it is prepared to redeploy 25% of its eastern area workforce to priority areas like the northern border.That means other areas in Canada are deprived of security. That includes already undermanned detachments and investigators needed to handle other serious crimes.Will CBSA guards at other land, marine, rail, and 13 airport points of entry be deployed to the northern border?Their Customs and Immigration Union (CIU), affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has long lamented a 2,000-manpower shortage.Already, only one per cent of sea containers are inspected before they are shipped throughout Canada.Too bad the Liberals neglected to get “incredibly serious” about ‘pacifying’ RCMP and border agents working back-to-back double shifts by beefing up sorely needed manpower.The RCMP need those Black Hawks to get the job done on the northern border.Commissioner Larkin said he was “really pleased with the progress” made when the Black Hawks were leased.He has Trump to thank for that. Not Trudeau.Trump won’t tolerate threats to national security. But for a decade Trudeau and his Liberal cabal have let national security slide and put Canadian at risk.The Liberals don’t deserve a pat on the back for being forced into this $1.3 billion border plan that’s nothing more than a band aid on a gaping national security wound.There’s nothing honourable about playing politics with Canada’s economic stability and safety.

SLOBODIAN: Too little, too late on border security

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