A group of Republican lawmakers say it’s time to protect the border. No, not that border. The other one, north of the United States. The one many Americans forget.
Their focus: the frontier with Canada.
That northern border usually is an afterthought in American politics, comfortably ensconced on the back burner of the country’s searing debates about the Mexican border.
More than two dozen Republicans have a mission to change that, and they held a news conference outside the Capitol on Tuesday.
They announced the creation of a new northern border security caucus, aimed at flagging concerns about the perennially disregarded frontier with Canada.
Its creation comes as part of a reality check about American political attitudes.
Canadians are well aware of the surge in northbound migration, with people crossing into Canada from Roxham Road in Quebec, spurring Ottawa to plead for a new migration pact with the U.S.
What’s gotten less attention is the exponential surge in migration going the other way.
These American politicians want more people to realize there’s a historic increase from Canada involving foreign migrants entering the U.S., and even Canadians with criminal records trying to sneak in undetected.
One speaker after another acknowledged that the scale of this challenge is minuscule compared to the border with Mexico, but said it’s time to pay attention.
The group’s wish list is still ill-defined, but what they clearly want is more monitoring technology, and more agents, which means more jobs in their border districts.
Migration into Canada via Quebec’s Roxham Road, seen here, is a major political issue in Canada. Politicians in Ottawa and Quebec are keen to renegotiate the Safe Third Country pact with Washington, so that the U.S. takes back migrants who enter Canada at irregular entry points like such as this one. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
‘We are being assaulted’
“We are being assaulted because we don’t have a border,” said Ryan Zinke, a congressman from Montana who served briefly in Trump’s cabinet.
“This is a national security problem and the northern tier has their own set of challenges.”
Tuesday’s events shed light on challenges on all sides: for this particular group of politicians, for the U.S. and for Canada.
Illegal crossings of the Canada/U.S. border in sub-freezing temps continued last week, as <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BorderPatrol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#BorderPatrol</a> Agents apprehended 115 subjects from 12 countries—mostly Mexican nationals. Unfortunately, perilous weather has done nothing to deter this traffic. Don’t risk it! <a href=”https://twitter.com/USBPChief?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@USBPChief</a> <a href=”https://t.co/Sjhhz0qJPP”>pic.twitter.com/Sjhhz0qJPP</a>
The limited interest in Canadian migration was evident inside and outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
Not a single American reporter showed up to ask any questions at the outdoor press conference.
The only questions were from Canadian journalists, and they were about things like about how the countries could co-operate on migration.
That’s not what some of the politicians came to talk about.
After a few such queries, the most senior politician there, the No. 3 House Republican, Elise Stefanik, interjected to urge a focus on what truly matters here: There’s a border crisis, and it’s President Joe Biden’s fault.
It was a similar theme inside the Capitol on Tuesday at the first hearing of the new Republican majority in the House homeland security committee.
The hearing was about the consequences on states across the country of lax borders, with migrants and drugs spilling into every state.
At this border hearing, Canada wasn’t even an afterthought.
This was made clear when a witness from Michigan shared a heart-wrenching story about her two sons being killed by fentanyl-laced pills.
The committee chairman, Mark Green, pointed out: “You’re in Michigan. … Quite a ways from the border.”
In fact, the witness, Rebecca Kiessling, a conservative activist, lives in Rochester Hills, Mich., a 40-minute drive from Canada in moderate Detroit traffic.
That’s because in U.S. political parlance, “the” border is almost always the one approximately 24 hours of drive time south of Kiessling’s home, to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
This group of northern conservatives wants to change that. Fox News and other U.S. outlets have, in fact, written about the massive migration surge from Canada.
The increase is real.
The recent trend
Statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show exponential growth in migration from Canada, with more than 55,000 encounters in the first four months of this fiscal year — almost eight times the 2021 rate.
These encounters can include anything from an arrest to an asylum claim, and they’ve disproportionately involved citizens of India, Mexico and Canada.
At the recent pace, there would be almost 170,000 such encounters at the northern border this year, which, for context, is barely five per cent of the comparable number for the southern border with Mexico, which is trending toward three million encounters.
Yet these lawmakers want Americans to realize drugs like fentanyl and cocaine are also coming through Canada, albeit in smaller amounts.
The Republicans handed journalists a chart showing how few border agents are posted on the border with Canada compared to Mexico. (Alexander Panetta/CBC)
“These numbers are outrageous. And they can not go unanswered,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan.
“We’re here today to say, ‘We do have a problem. Let’s work together to fix it.'”
What they want is better technology for communications and detection, of the sort more frequently deployed on the southern border.
They also want more border agents.
One Republican from Texas told a story about meeting border agents in his district who’d been redeployed — five times — from their normal posting in the north.
The lawmakers distributed stats: barely 10 per cent of U.S. border patrol agents are stationed along the Canadian frontier.
New York Republican Nick Longworthy said his part of the country has been left understaffed because border agencies are underfunded and struggling.
“Border patrol resources [are] trying to put a tourniquet on a gushing crisis at the southern border,” he said.
Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota said he’s sure Canadians are frustrated too. He said the Biden administration is allowing unlawful movement, while blocking lawful movement and trade with a continuing vaccine mandate for travel and his rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.
There was no Canada-bashing at the event.
Elise Stefanik is the most senior member of the group. She’s the No. 3 House Republican, and also represents a border district in upstate New York. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
Several speakers did mention, as a factor driving the phenomenon, Canada’s more permissive policies, such as visa-free travel for Mexicans and less stringent student-visa rules.
They suggested that people who can’t get into the U.S. lawfully have an incentive to travel to Canada and try entering illegally.
One border-union official at the event referred to the tragic case involving a family of four from India last year: The father got a Canadian student visa, and the whole family subsequently froze to death while trying to walk into the U.S. from Manitoba.
What does this mean for Canada?
There’s no guarantee this political effort winds up affecting Canada.
But it’s a sign of the political pressure Biden faces at home on immigration — as Canada asks him to accept more migrants.
The governments of Canada and Quebec are pushing for the expansion of the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement.
But the U.S. ambassador to Ottawa, in a recent interview with CBC News, refused to even acknowledge the countries are discussing this.
One Washington-based immigration expert, Theresa Cardinal Brown, told CBC News the U.S. has no political appetite to take on this issue right now.
In that same interview, however, Cardinal Brown also said that, perhaps, the spike in migration from Canada creates an incentive for the U.S. to talk.
“That may be a basis for a conversation,” said Brown, an immigration analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think-tank.
WATCH | What’s driving migrants toward Canada:
What’s driving migrants to make a dangerous run for Canada
16 hours ago
Duration 7:03
Warning: Video contains graphic images | Violence and oppression in Central and South America are driving a surge of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border and for many the new target in Canada. CBC’s Paul Hunter travels to Juarez, Mexico to find out more about what’s driving them to make the dangerous run north.
The U.S. hasn’t paid much attention to the northern border since the post-9/11 era, when concerns about terrorist movement dominated the Canada-U.S. conversation and led to security measures that slowed travel.
Canadian officials and diplomats mostly like it that way.
Then again, this gives Canada a new argument. When Biden heads to Ottawa, his Canadian counterparts might make a new pitch for a migration deal, arguing that it would help both countries control irregular entry, as they tell the president: Let’s make a deal.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
