Posted on 02/11/2006 3:25:46 AM PST by Marius3188
Canadian border guards abandoned the Peace Arch crossing in British Columbia after hearing an armed and dangerous American was trying to enter Canada.
The unarmed guards have a clause in their contract that allows them to leave their job if they think they're in danger.
They invoked the clause Friday night for the second time in a month.
The report of a fugitive turned out to be false.
The managers of Canada Border Services Agency say they will man the booths and reopen the border.
Friday evening, just one line of cars was slowly being allowed to enter Canada, said CTV's David Kincaid. A supervisor was believed to be staffing that line.
Border guards also walked off the job earlier this month in Roosville, B.C at the crossing between the province and Montana. They were concerned about their safety after being warned that an armed man was possibly heading to the border.
In January, customs officers left the border crossing between Surrey, B.C. and Blaine, Washington after two murder suspects from California tried to outrun American police officers at the border.
The fugitives got into a shootout with police before they could enter Canada.
After this incident, Conservative MP Vic Toews, now the Justice Minister, said border guards would be armed as soon as possible.
There have been a dozen work refusals by guards across the country in the past year.
As it stands, border guards are supposed to allow anyone suspected of being armed and dangerous into Canada and then call police.
With files from CTV's David Kincaid
"Fugitive Escorts" would work, too.
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
"I'm supposed to guard my country's border and all they gave me was a whistle?!?"
Canada Ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Isn't it obvious. It's part of Canaduhs French heritage.
Most of us do not have a French heritage.
The real reason is that these guards now want to carry sidearms, which after a couple of hundred years, when both countries were very proud of the "longest undefended border in the world" seems kind of sad.Unfortunantely some bad people seem determined to sneak into the USA in order to kill innocent Americans. We must therefore beef up our Canadian border security systems since these bad people might take advantage of our freedoms and sneak over the border. I am in favour since I want all my American grandkids in New Jersey to be safe and sound.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.