Keeping an Eye on the Border

by John Thompsn

February 8, 2003

For Americans and Canadians, our long undefended border has been a point of pride for decades, but t’was not always thus.

For much of the early history of the US, Canada -- under both the French and British -- represented their chief security problem. Aboriginals with British supplied muskets were a formidable obstacle to America’s early expansion. On one occasion in 1791, Maumee Indians in the Ohio Valley wiped out 90% of America’s regular army in one afternoon. This, and many lesser episodes, led to the ‘War Hawk’ sentiments that helped precipitate the War of 1812. Even in 1876, Canada sheltered Sitting Bull’s surviving hostile Sioux (forcing the Mounties to disarm them lest vengeful American cavalry cross the border and do it their way) and hostile Nez Pierce were making a run for the Canadian frontier when intercepted in 1877.

For Canada’s part, American Filibusters presented a threat in the 1830s, as did Fenian raiders in the 1860s. Both the survivors of the Upper Canada rebellion and the Metis revolt of 1870 also sought sanctuary in the US. Canada also had to move in the 1870s to prevent American Whiskey traders from continuing to prey on our Western Indians.

The risk of non-state actors crossing over the Canada-US border to commit acts of violence is not a necessarily new problem. However, for over a century the main problem on the Canada US border has been criminal activity.

The border extends over thousands of kilometres of mountain ranges, grasslands, and forest. Its ends lie in convoluted coastal areas dotted with islands, bays and inlets. It dissects the Great Lakes and runs along several rivers. The border runs straight through some towns, and even through some private homes. It is almost impossible to properly police it except at major border crossings among largely law-abiding travelers; and some Customs officers believe they only catch between 5 and 10% of the contraband that comes through these crossings.

One prime illustration of the vagaries along the border can be found at the Mohawk Reserve at Akwesasne. It lies at the point where New York State, Quebec and Ontario all intersect — providing a complex jurisdictional environment even before questions of Aboriginal government and policing arise. Geographically, the area consists of many small islands and reed beds on the Reserve side of the Saint Lawrence River, and Cornwall — which is athwart the main transport routes between Montreal and Toronto -- is a short speedboat sprint away.

Nearly identical conditions prevail at Walpole Island near Detroit and Sarnia; around the Lake of the Woods in Western Ontario, south of Vancouver, around Sault Ste Marie, on the upper reaches of the Saint John River between New Brunswick and Main, and so on.

When domestic policies in Canada and the US have broadly differed, the results have been exceptionally lucrative for the criminal underworld.

The Americans implemented the Volstead Act in 1920, with the expectation that the total prohibition of alcohol would result in — according to the Anti-Saloon League anyway — "a new era of clear thinking and clean living." The results were disappointing, not least because the act provided an ideal environment for organized crime to expand from loose collections of city gangs into sophisticated nation-wide institutions.

Canadian breweries and distilleries played an important role in this process — we supplied a substantial portion of their supplies of black market alcohol. Even in provinces that had Prohibition laws of their own, alcohol producers were allowed to stay open for the ‘export market’ provided that all duties and excise taxes were properly paid. Shipments of alcohol were then brought down to rickety docks at night where dark-painted speedboats waited to play their role in maintaining Canada’s balance of trade with the US.

Some sixty years after the US abandoned its prohibition experiment (and created the modern American Mafia in the process), the shades of some old Revenue Officers must have smiled to see Canada repeating the same mistake. In the early 1990s, Canadian ‘Sin-Taxes’ meant that a $15 carton of cigarettes would be sold for $49. The inevitable result was that by late 1993, some 40% of Canadian cigarettes (about $3.6 Billion worth) were black market products smuggled from the United States.

The market for illegal cigarettes has almost entirely vanished — largely thanks to cooperation between US and Canadian authorities and compatible tobacco tax structures. However, Canadian and American laws still leave some inviting opportunities for unethical entrepreneurs. Canada’s sin-taxes on alcohol make bootlegging American booze attractive, and our criminals use diverted American firearms. Return trips back across the border may carry illegal refrigerants back to the US, counterfeit American dollars (some of it coming from the Middle East), or cut-price pharmaceuticals.

While Canada and the US have identical policies on narcotics, but supply and demand take their course even with illegal substances. Canada tends to get more high-grade heroin shipped in from Asia than the US does, while the Americans normally receive more cocaine. Canadians can take pride in the fact that BC produces the finest marijuana in the World; and transnational Outlaw Bikers get it down to California to exchange for metamphetamines.

The other commodity carried both ways over the border involves illegal aliens. Even during the Prohibition Era, it was not unknown for the speedboats to be carrying the occasional Chinese would-be migrant — often carried inside a weighted bag in case of interception. People smugglers are a bit less callous today, but the Niagara River and the waters around Akwesasne have seen floating corpses from failed attempts to cross the Frontier. Most of the flow, but not all of it, goes into the US.

Most of these smuggling situations are endurable; the risk of terrorism is not — particularly given the spectacularly lethal actions carried out by al Qaeda and the very real risk of attack with weapons of mass destruction. While there are Al Qaeda cells and operatives in the US, Ontario’s Solicitor General confirmed in May 2002 that the OPP were watching additional members inside Ontario, and other police and intelligence agencies have confirmed that other members were here.

Border security has increased, often at the expense of the normal commerce that is so vital to Canada’s economy. The needs of security and prosperity have been met with the Smart Border initiatives that give a high priority to sealed shipments from bonded businesses, and these are being carried on board transponder equipped containers that give a signal if the shipment is late or has been interfered with.

New measures at Canadian container ports will also go far to assure the Americans that nerve gas or a radiological bomb will not reach their nation via ours. New detection equipment, including fiber-optic scanners and high-resolution thermal imagers, is being provided to these ports. New ID systems will also provide increased convenience for those who regularly cross the border, and increased scrutiny for those who — however undeservedly — attract the interest of border guards.

It is expected that these measures and additional funds are going to provide the manpower and resources to watch traditional smuggling routes more carefully than ever. Regardless, there is never going to be a complete guarantee of safety for either America’s citizens or ours. Such a guarantee has never been possible — except when we harmonize our practices and look our for each others’ concerns, like good neighbours should.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca