[jolinar of malkshor]

[quote=fredr123;566582]I'm not convinced that giving the border guards guns would solve anything in this situation. I have doubts the clause that allows CBSA to withdraw their services if they feel in danger would ever be removed, even if they were armed. Even with guns, the CBSA officers could take off from the port just like we saw yesterday (and several times before).[QUOTE]

Once officers are armed, they will have to negotiate a new CBA and I am pretty sure the government will not allow them to walk off the job once they are armed due to safety reasons of that nature.

I'm also not convinced that having an armed border would prevent dangerous people from trying to enter our country. I have doubts that the government has the capacity to properly train and arm the thousands of border officers necessary to bring about the secure border so many people envision.

Having armed officers will prevent dangerous people from entering the country. (as long as they go through the port of entry). You won't have situations like this where they just wave the guy in (and that is there policy now. That is why they walk off the job. The government says that if a dangerous person attempts entry into Canada, they are to dis-engage and call the mounties. The problem is the mounties arrive hours later due to their own budget crunch and lack of officers.

As for the training, you are most certainly right. They do not have the capacity to train their officers now, let alone a more indepth training program along with a commitment to hire an additional 400 officers. There needs to be more money and additional regional training centres instead of one in Regaud Quebec that is 60 years old.

It will take a fundamental shift in thinking to change CBSA officers into border guards. To expect them to properly use a firearm and defend the border with force, if necessary, is a completely different job from what they are used to and trained for.

Your right regarding the old time officers. They were hired as tax collectors, that doesn't mean this can't be implemented over time. There are many officers that will qualify to use these firearms now. No one has said that every officer needs to be armed all at once.

Consider the intensity and quality of training that police officers go through in order to be properly prepared to handle dangerous situations where deadly force may be used. The average person probably wouldn't qualify through that training program. Hopefully the government, in handing out firearms to border officers, makes similar training necessary. Not doing so would be irresponsible. (The counter-example to all of this is probably Brinks or Securicor where they basically protect millions of dollars with poorly-trained loose cannons.)

Proper training will definately take place. If not they open up a can of litigation when untrained officers start abusing their powers.

Given what has happened in the past with the unions and employer involved, I could see a good deal of resistance to the more rigorous training. Already there is a fairly rigorous training process in place but older officers are grandfathered around those requirements. That shouldn't be allowed for anyone with a gun. What happens if it is found that a good 50% or so of the current border guards are unfit to carry firearms? Do they attempt to recruit better officers? Where do these higher-quality candidates come from? Or do they just lower the standards?

I would argue that more than 50% will not pass the requirements to carry firearms, however, like I said, no one says every officer needs to be armed now. You can't take one fo the largest law-enforcment agencies and turn it into a new entity over night. The ball starts rolling now and may end up at the bottem of the hill 10-15 years from now. It degfinately won't be completed in 4 years like someone else posted.

The alternative, I suppose, is to make a tough business decision and keep things going the way they are currently. Give the officers minimal training and protection (to keep costs down) and deploy RCMP or local police the odd time a real threat occurs. This way is much cheaper given the high cost of properly training border guards. I'm not sure I would continue down this path though...

Again, the RCMP are barely able to staff themselves, there is no way that they could man each port. The RCMP are to diverse (as far as operation go) as it is. Leave the border security up to the border officers.