CBSA officers caught giving preferential treatment, associating with criminals, documents reveal

Canadian border officers have been reprimanded for hundreds of acts of misconductover the past two years including preferential treatment and criminal association according to documents obtained by CBC News.

Details of the cases all of which were deemed founded were released under access to information law and cover the period Jan. 1, 2020 to Jan. 1, 2022.

TheCanada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said that, during the last fiscal year, it concluded 92 founded investigations. Of those, 12 sawborder officersverballyreprimanded, 42 led towritten reprimandsand 38 ended insuspensions.

That figure is substantially lower than the numberfor 2020 the first year to see a reduction in travel due to the pandemic. In 2020, the CBSA reported215 founded cases resulting in nine dismissals, 82 suspensions,52written reprimands and27 verbalreprimands. (The figuresdon't say what happened in the remaining cases.)

A CBSA spokesperson said theagency considers a complaint "founded" if "aspects" of it are found to be "valid."

While details of these cases including names and locations are redacted in the documents released to CBC News, they describe sometroubling behaviour at land and air crossings.

In one case, an officer was found to have failed to properly process travellers and vehicle plates a key component of the job for three years.

In another, an officer accessed the CBSA's computer system to remove flags from someone'sfile. Flags are indicators related to an individual's criminal or travel history that are meant to warn CBSA officers that a particular traveller warrants a closer look.

One founded investigation report said only that the officer in question posed "a security risk" and could"harm the agency's reputation."

Ties to Hells Angels

The documents also describemultiple founded cases of criminal association including one involving an officer who "provided [a] false name when stopped by police while having dinner with [a] cocaine smuggler" and another involving an officer with ties to the Hells Angels.

A handful of cases involved officers engaging in sexual harassment sexually assaulting a colleague while off duty in one case, spraying insect repellant on a colleague's crotch and sending sexually explicit messages or photographs in others.

Other investigated cases involved interpersonal grievances, such as employees spreading rumours about each other.

Allegations typicallyare reviewed by CBSA management through the disciplinary process. If the allegations are serious enough, a senior investigator from the agency's security and professional standards directorate launches a formal investigation.

"The CBSA has a responsibility to address misconduct in the workplace and takes this obligation seriously. CBSA management addresses allegations of misconduct," said CBSA spokesperson Patrick Mahaffy.

"Discipline is managed case by case, and discipline is rendered based on the severity of the allegations and takes into account mitigating and aggravating factors."

Union chief says environment at CBSA 'cold, clinical'

But Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, said he believes the CBSA goes too far in its approach to discipline.

"The serious things are absolutely investigated, and many things that shouldn't go to a formal investigation are also investigated," he said."Discipline is not supposed to be punitive. It's supposed to be corrective."

While Weber acknowledged some of the founded cases are serious, he called the agency's approach to discipline "extreme."

"Everything is very cold, clinical," he said.

"Over the years, what we have noticed is that the agency has become very formal. Things that used to be dealt with between a manager and an employee with a conversation 'You could have done this differentlyand it would have gone better'everything at the CBSA has been centralized and become an official email, an official fact-finding that often happens weeks or months after the event."

The CBSA remainsthe only public safety agencyin Canada without an independent oversight body for public complaints.

While the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency keeps an eye on CBSA's national security activities, members of the public have to take their complaints about theCBSA's services directlyto the agency, which deals with theminternally.

Last month, the federal government announced plans to reintroduce legislationto allow travellers and immigration detainees to complain to an independent body if they feelthey've been mistreated by Canada's border agency.

"Ultimately, this legislation is about strengthening our law enforcement agencies by strengthening accountability, transparencyand it will lead to a safer country for everyone," said Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, whose portfolio includes theCBSA.

New complaints commission in the works

Bill C-20 (previous versions died on the order paper) would replacethe Civilian Review and Complaints Commissionthe watchdog agency that fields public complaints about the RCMP with aPublic Complaints and Review Commissionthat would handle complaints about both the RCMP and the CBSA.

Weber said he worriesC-20 will put even more pressure on a strained employer-employee relationship at the CBSA.

"We have an employer who is already very heavy-handed in terms of discipline,"he said."Our members are regularly placed on leave without pay, sometimes for a year or more, pending the outcome of investigations."

If the bill passes, the new Public Complaints and Review Commission would be able to carry out reviews of any CBSAactivities that don't involve matters ofnational security,either on the commission's own initiative or at the request of the minister.

Weber said he'd like to see the new body take on managerial misconduct as well.

He said that if a complaint "points to a systemic issue," the commission should tackle that issue"rather than everything being directed to the one person that the traveller interacts with."

He said CBSA officers are often stuck "working on mandatory overtime" and sometimes process "hundreds of people" aday.

"Depending on what happens in that circumstance, that might be the reason for the complaints," he said.

Bill C-20 is still awaiting second reading in the House of Commons.