Regarding the quote from this story:
"The posting of the Canada Customs inspectors in Newark has created
some unease among Canadians worried about their country's close
relationship with the U.S. becoming too close."
"To the extent that there's more and more encroachment, I think there
will be growing concerns as to just how sovereign Canada really is."
I laugh at the absurdity of this kind of thing. First of all, give me
names of the Canadians who are ill at ease with the stationing in the
USA of their officials.... it's the USA that "gives up" sovereignty in
such an affair - if you consider that stationing officials in another
country is a splitting of sovereign rights - which it's not. The
sovereign, the US in this case, exercizing its right to do what it
wants on its territory, is granting a license for someone to do
something - not making the ground the Canadian inspectors stand on
some sort of extraterritorial area.
For criminy sakes, both countries are in NATO and have troops on each
others' soil (remember the DEW line across northern Canada and the US
troops who were in Newfoundland, on on and on...) - and here we have
some newswriter asserting that some anonymous Canadians are afraid
because we (the US) let their people come here to perform official
acts. They should be afraid that the US has given up some of it's
sovereignty to the Canadians - if that's the "logic" they insist on
applying.
The author is just a rabble rouser.
Len Nadybal
--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "Doug Murray Productions" <doug@d...>
wrote:
> Print Story - canada.com network
>
>
> Cameras target border jumpers
> Staff now can see why a sensor has been tripped
>
> Glenn Bohn
> Vancouver Sun
>
>
> Thursday, April 04, 2002
>
> Vancouver Sun
> John Bates (above, left) of the U.S. Border Patrol
is shown in the Blaine control centre where new $50-million US camera
patrol system is monitored. Greg Faubion and Kimberly Kaya, both Law
Enforcement Communications Assistants, are at the computer controls.
>
>
> Vancouver Sun
> Bates walks along Jerome Street in Blaine, where
dual cameras on a pole watch the border.
>
>
> The U.S. Border Patrol has installed 64
remote-controlled video cameras along the western end of the
Canada-U.S. border.
>
> The cameras, atop metal poles on U.S. soil, are
monitoring a 70-kilometre stretch of the international boundary from
the Columbia Valley south of Abbotsford to the Douglas border crossing
at south Surrey and Blaine, Wash.
>
> U.S. authorities already have
weight-and-motion-sensitive sensors that alert border agents when
someone or something moves through one of the farm fields or ditches
that run along the 49th parallel, which used to be known as the
world's longest undefended border.
>
> But, before the cameras, U.S. Border Patrol deputy chief
John Bates said agents didn't immediately know whether the sensors
were detecting a smuggler or a deer.
>
> Now, staff who monitor camera-captured images can aim as
many as two cameras on any one area, to try to find out what tripped a
sensor. If they see something suspicious, a border agent has some
forewarning of a potential danger before rushing off to investigate.
>
> "For instance, if a farmer was plowing his field and he
got very close to the sensor, we could tell [the border agent] you
don't need to respond," Bates said Wednesday in an interview. "Or we
could have a heavy rainstorm that causes a stream to overflow its
banks, which can make a [light beam-based motion] sensor false,
because it thought that some person broke the beam when in fact it was
water.
>
> "On the other hand, we might see six or seven
individuals cross and we'd be able to tell the agent what he's looking
for."
>
> The cameras capture colour images, so staff looking at
the monitors can see the colour of a suspect vehicle and relay a
description to the border agent, who otherwise might pass the vehicle
on his way to the scene. Each of the 18-metre-high poles is topped
with two cameras: a regular camera for use in daylight and an
infra-red camera for night. The cameras can pan the landscape or zoom
in on one area, to get an image of a person or car from as far away as
five kilometres.
>
> "Even if we had agents out there at night, they might
not be able to see that in the dark," he said.
>
> The U.S. government began installing its $50-million US
surveillance system last September, before Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
in New York and Washington, D.C.
>
> Bates said there are similar cameras along the
U.S.-Mexico border, but the cameras here are the first major
surveillance systems along the U.S.-Canada border.
>
> The cameras are already paying for themselves. Bates
said they have been successfully used to stop marijuana smugglers, as
well as northbound and southbound aliens, as recently as last weekend.
>
> Each year, about 1,000 illegal aliens are captured along
that stretch of the border. Bates said it used to be impossible to
estimate how many more people eluded authorities and crossed the
border illegally, but he's hoping the cameras will give the U.S.
Border Patrol a better idea.
>
> In contrast to Canadian officials at borders and
airports -- who often say they can't discuss security measures --
Bates isn't shy about letting the public know about the cameras.
>
> "Part of our job is to deter illegal entry," he said.
>
> Bates also said the cameras will benefit both countries,
because he said U.S. authorities are sharing their information with
Canadian authorities to stop things like weapons and drug smuggling.
>
> "We look at this border as a two-way street," he said.
>
> Meanwhile, two customs inspectors from Canada have
quietly begun working in the United States, screening northbound cargo
for contraband or potential security threats.
>
> Canada Customs inspectors stationed last week in Newark,
N.J., and Seattle are "pre-screening" some of the 200,000 marine cargo
containers on their way to Canada each year.
>
> In Newark, the Canadian inspectors sit at computer
terminals and examine ship manifests and customs declaration forms,
using electronic intelligence and law enforcement databases to help
them spot suspicious containers.
>
> "Anything that we recognize that looks out of the
ordinary, we will investigate further," said Michel Proulx, a Canada
Customs spokesman.
>
> "If someone did send us a nuclear bomb, it's better to
catch it right away at the point of entry than let it take six days as
it moves across the continent."
>
> The two inspectors based in Newark seek anomalies that
might make a container suspicious, including paperwork marred by
errors, shipping routes that make little sense, and computer "hits"
showing that a vessel or its captain has previously been involved in
smuggling.
>
> In October, Italian officials found a suspected al-Qaida
operative locked inside a marine container bound for Canada. Inside
the container, authorities found a bed, a makeshift bathroom, airport
maps and security passes, and an airplane mechanic's certificate.
>
> The unarmed Canada Customs inspectors in Newark won't
conduct any searches, Proulx said. If a Canada-bound container draws
their attention, he said, they will ask their U.S. counterparts to
search it.
>
> Inspected containers that have been cleared are sealed
and then sent to Canada.
>
> Newark was selected because it is the eastern U.S. port
that ships the largest volume of containers onward to Canada, he said.
>
> "We are neighbours," Proulx said. "We have to work
together. We are looking at this as a joint initiative to ensure
security on the North American perimeter."
>
> The posting of the Canada Customs inspectors in Newark
has created some unease among Canadians worried about their country's
close relationship with the U.S. becoming too close.
>
> "I think over all there's a feeling of angst," said
Allen Sens, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
>
> "To the extent that there's more and more encroachment,
I think there will be growing concerns as to just how sovereign Canada
really is."
>
> gbohn@p...
>
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