Kindgo
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Ontario presses for North American security perimeter in wake of FBI manhunt.
http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id={2827CB51-FA1C-415B-8A68-ACE9B8415EFF}
WOJTEK DABROWSKI
Canadian Press
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
TORONTO -- Reports that five men wanted for questioning by the FBI may have slipped illegally into the United States from Canada highlight the need for a North American security perimeter, Ontario's security minister said Tuesday.
"This just, I think, reinforces the need to start working on that, but for whatever reason, that hasn't happened," said Bob Runciman, who heads the province's Ministry of Public Safety and Security. "There doesn't seem to be the will on the federal level."
A security perimeter would harmonize customs and immigration procedures between Canada and the United States, but critics argue this would compromise Canada's sovereignty.
Ontario in particular has been pushing the perimeter concept since the fall of 2001 and Runciman said the province plans to ratchet up the pressure on Ottawa in the coming months.
People would undergo a screening and a risk assessment before they even departed for North America if the perimeter was in place, Runciman said.
Runciman's ministry was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and is responsible for the province's jails, policing and emergency measures but will also focus on border security.
Even as Runciman spoke, American authorities continued an intense search for five men of Middle Eastern origin who may have slipped into the U.S. from Canada.
Runciman said his director of security is still trying to confirm whether the men were refugee claimants.
Still, he criticized the way the federal government handles undocumented refugee claims.
"We've been advised that there's a significant amount of people, on a daily basis, who the government continues to allow into the country to walk free, if you will, undocumented."
"Our view is they should either be turned around and sent back from whence they came, or they should be incarcerated until such time as we can assure ourselves that they pose no risk to this continent."
Runciman's words echoed the attitudes of the majority of Canadians surveyed in a recent poll for Maclean's magazine. It found 60 per cent of respondents said they would put refugee claimants arriving without valid identification back on the next plane back to where they came from.
The poll of 1,400 Canadians also found that 51 per cent favoured locking up refugee claimants in "secure locations" until their cases were heard.
Incidents such as the one involving the five Middle Eastern men also don't help U.S.-Canada relations, Runciman added.
"We tend to forget that our economic well being depends on ease of access to (U.S.) markets," he said, adding that more than one million jobs hinge on trade between the two countries.
He said he hopes "nothing unfortunate occurs, because it could have, I think, a devastating impact on this country, let alone the public safety damage that could be done in the United States."
Official information on the wanted men has been slight.
However, The Toronto Star reported that a Canadian tip sparked the investigation. The tip reportedly came from a joint Canada-U.S. fake passport probe and the RCMP gave the Americans the men's names and photos.
And the Toronto Sun, quoting police sources, said the men arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport two weeks ago and that they claimed refugee status and were later smuggled into the United States.
The FBI released photographs of the men Sunday in hopes they would be recognized. However, the agency acknowledged it isn't certain the names and birth dates released with the photos are correct, or that the men even entered the country.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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