Details of the cases – which were all considered substantiated – were disclosed under the Access to Information Act and cover the period from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2022. The Canadian Border Services (CBSA) said it had completed 92 in-depth investigations over the past financial year. Of these, 12 saw border guards reprimanded verbally, 42 led to written reprimands and 38 resulted in suspensions. This number is significantly lower than the number for 2020 – the first year of reduced travel due to the pandemic. In 2020, the CBSA reported 215 substantiated cases leading to nine layoffs, 82 suspensions, 52 written reprimands and 27 verbal reprimands. (Evidence does not say what happened in the other cases.) A CBSA spokesman said the agency considered the complaint “valid” if it was deemed “valid”. While details of these cases – including names and locations – appear in documents published in CBC News, they describe some worrying behavior on land and air crossings. In one case, an officer was found to have failed to properly process travelers and vehicle license plates – a key component of the job – for three years. In another, an officer had access to the CBSA computer system to remove flags from someone’s file. Flags are markers related to a person’s criminal or travel history and are intended to warn CBSA officers that a particular traveler justifies a closer look. A well-founded investigative report only stated that the officer in question posed a “security risk” and could “damage the service’s reputation”.

The documents also describe multiple criminal association cases – including one involving an officer who [a] fake name when police stopped while having dinner with him [a] cocaine smuggler “and another officer with ties to the Angels of Hell. Some cases involved police officers engaging in sexual harassment – sexually assaulting a colleague while off duty – in one case, spraying insect repellent on a colleague’s crotch and sending sexually explicit messages or photos to others. Other cases that have been investigated have involved interpersonal complaints, such as employees spreading rumors about each other. The president of the Customs and Immigration Association said he believed the CBSA’s approach to discipline sometimes went too far. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press) Allegations are usually handled by CBSA management through disciplinary proceedings. If the allegations are serious enough, a senior investigator from the service’s Security and Professional Standards Division launches a formal investigation. “The CBSA has a responsibility to address misconduct in the workplace and is taking this commitment seriously. The CBSA’s management is dealing with allegations of misconduct,” said CBSA spokesman Patrick Mahaffy. “Discipline is administered on a case-by-case basis and discipline is imposed based on the seriousness of the complaints and takes into account mitigating and aggravating factors.”

Union chief says CBSA environment is “cold, clinical”

But Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Association, said he believed the CBSA was going too far in its approach to discipline. “Serious things are being thoroughly investigated and many things that should not be formally investigated are also being investigated,” he said. “Discipline is not supposed to be punitive. It is supposed to be corrective.” While Weber acknowledged that some of the allegations were serious, he described the disciplinary action as “extreme”. “Everything is very cold, clinically,” he said. “Over the years, what we have noticed is that the agency has become very formal. Things that were dealt with between a director and an employee in a conversation …” You could have done it differently and it would have been better. Everything at CBSA has have been gathered and have become an official email, an official finding that often happens weeks or months after the event “. The CBSA remains one of the only public security agencies in Canada without an independent public oversight body. While the National Security and Intelligence Service monitors CBSA national security activities, members of the public should file complaints about CBSA services directly with the in-house service. Last month, the federal government announced plans to reintroduce legislation that would allow travelers and immigrant detainees to complain to an independent body if they feel they have been mistreated by Canada’s border service. “Ultimately, this legislation is about strengthening law enforcement by enhancing accountability, transparency … and will lead to a safer country for all,” said Public Safety Secretary Marco Mendicino, whose portfolio includes the CBSA.

A new complaints committee is in the works

Bill C-20 (previous versions died on order paper) will replace the Civil Review and Complaints Committee – the oversight body that submits public complaints about the RCMP – with a Public Complaints and Review Committee that would handle complaints about both the RCMP as well as for the CBSA. Weber said he was concerned that the C-20 would put even more pressure on a strained CBSA employer-employee relationship. “We have an employer who is already very disciplined,” he said. “Our members are regularly put on unpaid leave, sometimes for a year or more, pending the outcome of surveys.” Public Safety Secretary Marco Mendicino introduced a bill last month that allows people to complain to an independent body if they feel they have been abused by the CBSA. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press) If the bill is passed, the new Public Complaints and Review Committee will be able to review any CBSA non-national security activities, either at the initiative of the committee or at the request of the Secretary. Weber said he would like to see the new body deal with administrative misconduct as well. He said that if a complaint “indicates a systemic issue”, the commission should address the issue “and not all address to a person with whom the traveler is interacting”. He said CBSA officers often get stuck “working overtime” and sometimes process “hundreds of people” a day. “Depending on what happens in this case, that may be the reason for the complaints,” he said. The C-20 bill is still pending a second reading in the House of Commons.