Smugglers given carte blanche: Honour system lets criminals
avoid arrest or seizure
Financial Post - Canada; Jan 13, 2001
BY DIANE FRANCIS
Fugitives and smugglers bringing in drugs, aliens or arms just love
Canada.
Anyone can land a plane full of cocaine or heroin or anything even if
flown in directly from Mexico, Jamaica or Colombia without any fear of
arrest or seizure.
This is because Ottawa in the past couple of years naively instituted
an honour system called CANPASS, which exempts all private jets or
planes with fewer than 15 passengers from having to go through
Customs. Pilots merely call a central telephone number to inform
Customs officers that they are landing and where, with whom on
board and read off the alleged passport numbers of passengers.
Their word is taken as gospel and no one double-checks whether
pilots are telling the truth.
The Americans are not so naive.
"Every plane is met in the United States that lands from any other
country. But here in Canada we have an honour system. No one
meets planes landing here, including from countries like Jamaica or
Colombia or Mexico where drugs originate from," said a Customs
source.
South of the border, as used to be the case here until a couple of
years ago, all planes are met by a Customs officer, passports
checked and cargo often inspected if the inspector has suspicions.
The cost of such service is borne by the owner of the plane, not the
American taxpayer.
Canada had the identical system where plane owners were inspected
but charged for the cost.
And that fact makes the CANPASS system all the more suspicious.
Ottawa did not save money because inspections were paid for by
plane owners.
The excuse at the time for this was that Canada wanted to facilitate
business by streamlining business travel.
I'm sure this is the case, but it's an appalling idea that's undoubtedly
streamlined criminal travel, too.
Also irresponsible is the fact that no one enforces or double-checks
to see if pilots have called in, according to an internal report on
CANPASS obtained under the Access to Information Act.
"Prior to CANPASS, the air traffic control tower (NAVCAN) personnel
would inform Customs of the international flight arrivals. With the
implementation of the Telephone Reporting Centres (TRCs), the pilot
is required to communicate directly with Customs prior to arrival,"
read the report. "The tower no longer informs Customs of flight
arrivals. In order for the CANPASS team to be certain that all aircraft
are reporting to the TRC, the CANPASS Team attempted to obtain
pre-arrival flight information from the tower. The tower will not provide
this information, as there exists for NAVCAN a confidentiality of
information issue as the pilot no longer requests the tower to advise
Customs of the arrival. However, the CANPASS team does
communicate with the tower when required to track an airplane. This
information is limited."
In other words, anyone can fly anything or anyone into Canadian
airspace unnoticed, land at any one of hundreds of isolated or
unmanned airports and get away with it.
Little wonder that the Americans are fortifying their northern border.
After all, any drug cartel can simply load up and fly into Canada for
distribution here and eventually south of the border.
Concern is so high in Washington that there is even a movement
afoot in some congressional quarters to place troops along the
border to stem the flow of narcotics and terrorists southward. If that
were to happen, Canada's economy could be crippled with exports
delayed for days.
Ottawa remains oblivious to the flaws in CANPASS; witness that is
has expanded it to boats and roads.
"It's well known that the motorcycle gangs bringing drugs into Canada
in isolated regions by boat or snowmobile or whatever simply call
TRC and get a reporting number. They fulfill their obligations. Others,
like fugitives on the run, don't bother calling in. But it doesn't matter
even if they don't call, because Customs never sends out an officer
to investigate a TRC," revealed a high-ranking Customs source.
Last month, Ottawa spread its CANPASS policy by setting aside lanes
at busy border crossings which can be crossed simply by swiping a
CANPASS card. Cardholders have been checked for criminal
records, but there is no identification to link the driver of the car, or
the car itself, with whoever swipes it to get through the border. These
cards can be loaned to others, sold to criminals or simply stolen.
"Recently, a Customs officer accidentally sent a car to inspection
even though the driver had a CANPASS card. Guess what? There
was $2,000 worth of contraband in the car," said the source.
CANPASS must be scrapped immediately. Planes should all be met
and charged, cards should contain fingerprints or other bona fide
identification. Anything less is unacceptable.
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