Prime Time Crime

Vancouver’s loony left scored a major victory this week and boy, are they crowing about it.  Police to terminate agreement with CBSA.  Last year Transportation Not Deportation demanded the following 3 ‘reforms’:

1.  Transit Police cease cooperating with the Canadian Border Services Agency

2.  Transit Police stop carrying guns

3.  Public transit in Metro Vancouver be made accessible for all ‘marginalized’ groups or even be made free.

As absurd as these sounded at the time, in a few short months they’ve accomplished their first objective and I wouldn’t take any bets on the other two.  I’ve written on this subject in the past (A Bad Situation   An Insult) and now it’s happened.  A group of political activists have cowed the Transit Police into instructing their members to cease cooperation with the CBSA.  They didn’t even have the good grace to express gratitude, but bragged about how they ‘forced’ the police into it.  A cautionary note here, concession on one demand doesn’t mean abandonment of the others.  There is no ‘give and take’ with these people.  It’s all ‘take’. 

I’ve long been a staunch defender of the Transit Police (Smoke and Mirrors  A Well-Worn Drum) and continue to be.  I will always stand with rank and file cops and will criticize any policy that hinders them from doing their jobs in the interests of political correctness.

For my civilian readers let me make one very basic point.  Sworn members of law enforcement agencies in Canada (RCMP, City & Provincial Police, Military Police, Railway Police, Transit Police, CBSA, etc.) are all Peace Officers as set out in the Criminal Code.  While Peace Officers have a great deal of discretion they are sworn to uphold the laws of Canada and not just those that some politician or appointee agrees with.  When you suspect a violation of the Immigration Act, calling CBSA is your duty.  When I was a uniformed constable I made lots of Immigration arrests (some of which led to the uncovering of other crimes).  It’s no different than stopping someone on the street and finding a piece of jewelry reported stolen in Coquitlam.  You lock them up & phone the Coquitlam RCMP.  There’s no warrant or MOU required, it’s your duty.  Plain and simple. 

In addition to undermining the traditional independence of law enforcement, placing the concept of Duty on a sliding scale, and encouraging similar lunacy in other agencies, there is another concern these days. 

As much as these activists would have us believe that illegal immigration somehow enriches us all, there are those who would enter Canada to do us harm.  Our military are bombing some of them right now and these people don’t forget.  Nothing is more attractive to them than countries with large, undefended borders, whose law enforcement and intelligence capabilities have been weakened from within by confederates or dupes.  Two of those spearheading this effort are Harsha Walia and Daniel Tseghay.  Just look at their Twitter feeds.  The ‘struggle for social justice’ sounds a lot like ‘the long march through the institutions’. 

When terrorists and other criminals are caught it’s often a combination of a fluke (flawed document, tail light out, j-walking ticket, unpaid fare) combined with a policeman’s instincts and it doesn’t matter who does the catching.  Every law enforcement resource and legal tactic should be utilized to intercept them.  When the police come into contact with a foreign national, calling in CBSA is often the only way to identify them.  Transit cops will now be given a choice between accepting substandard forms of identification and letting the person walk away which most will do to avoid trouble from bosses.  Public transportation affords anonymity and Transit Police management would do well to recall that one of the factors that allowed the 9-11 plot to succeed was the balkanization of law enforcement and different agencies working in silos.  The current threat potential calls for a commitment to full cooperation among all agencies and standing firm against any pressure to do otherwise.