Canadian border guards abandon posts!

[EvilMonkey]

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgaz...e3-653eb1ca790e

 

Border guards abandon posts

 

IRWIN BLOCK

The Gazette

 

Sunday, September 11, 2005

 

It started with the shooting Friday night of a New York State trooper near Plattsburgh.

 

When an alert was sent to Canadian customs agents in Quebec warning of an "armed and dangerous" suspect, some 50 employees walked off the job for four hours at about 15 of 44 border crossings just before 9 a.m. yesterday.

 

The result was long lines for Canada-bound traffic of up to 90 minutes at St. Bernard de Lacolle, the busiest crossing in the province, officials reported.

 

It took management staff at the checkpoints about two hours to clear the backlog and process waiting cars, said Dominique McNeely, a spokesperson for the Canada Borders Services Agency.

 

"The established procedure was followed and there was at one point a significant line-up," McNeely said, confirming the delay of up to two hours. No cars were waved through, he said.

 

The agents, members of the Customs and Excise Union, returned to work at 1:50 p.m. after it was confirmed the suspect,

 

Vladimir Kulakov, 47, of Plattsburgh, who fled on foot, was arrested in Chester, N.Y.

 

He was driving a stolen pickup truck on Friday night. With two state troopers in pursuit, Kulakov abandoned the truck and fled into the woods.

 

Trooper Sean Finn, 34, located the fugitive in a grassy area when the shots were fired. The trooper was struck on the left side of his head and in both hands, and has since been released from a hospital.

 

The suspect is to be arraigned on attempted murder, resisting arrest and other charges.

 

Meanwhile at the border crossings, the protesting agents were exercising their right under the Canada Labour Code to withdraw services if they feel their life or health is threatened.

 

"We're not armed, we're not going to be a target," said Jean-Pierre Fortin, a union spokesperson. The union wants the federal government to supply border agents with sidearms. Ottawa says the agents' bulletproof vests, telescopic batons and pepper spray are sufficient.

[Mercy!]

"telescopic batons"?

 

Double tuff.

Edited September 14, 2005 by Mercy!

[KipWellsFan]

Meanwhile at the border crossings, the protesting agents were exercising their right under the Canada Labour Code to withdraw services if they feel their life or health is threatened.

 

"We're not armed, we're not going to be a target," said Jean-Pierre Fortin, a union spokesperson. The union wants the federal government to supply border agents with sidearms. Ottawa says the agents' bulletproof vests, telescopic batons and pepper spray are sufficient.

 

That's an embarassment. For the border troops to not even have access to weapons is completely mind-boggling. This is actually a case where the government is more leftist than the union.

[KipWellsFan]

A spokesman for Public Security Minister Anne McLellan, who has overall responsibility for border security, said a recent independent study showed there was no need to arm the guards.

 

"Arrangements are made with police to ensure that when an armed presence is needed, the police can be contacted to work with the border agents to address a situation," he said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01475473.htm

 

I'm still embarassed. As though they call Anne McLellan a spokesman, she's bloody second in line to the Prime Minister's chair.

[Goldmember]

probably about half of those people was just wanting a lil' time off...

Edited September 14, 2005 by Goldmember

[southsideirish71]

This is the break we have been waiting for. Get a couple of guys with guns and we can take over and make it our 51st state.

 

[YASNY]

Wasn't Canada colonized by the French? Just asking.

[southsideirish71]

Wasn't Canada colonized by the French?  Just asking.

 

Figures, now I know where they got their military tactics from. If it wasnt for the US being between Mexico and Canada, the cannucks would be speaking spanish right now.

 

 

French Military history

[KipWellsFan]

British claims to North America date from 1497, when John Cabot reached what he called Newfoundland, though it is not clear whether Cabot landed in what is the current Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or the American state of Maine. French claims date from explorations by Jacques Cartier (from 1534) and Samuel de Champlain (from 1603). Neither Cabot's or Cartier's explorations left any permanent settlers behind. In 1604, French settlers were the first Europeans to settle permanently in what is now Canada. After an unsuccessful winter in St. Croix Island (today in Maine, USA), they settled Port-Royal in what is now the Annapolis valley in Nova Scotia, but moved to found Quebec city in 1608. The current Acadians are descendents of settlers who came later in the same century and re-founded Port-Royal. New France was generally the name given to the French colonies of Canada and Acadia (and later Louisiana).

 

British settlements were established along the Atlantic seaboard and around Hudson Bay. As these colonies expanded, a struggle for control of North America took place between 1689 and 1763 (see French and Indian Wars), exacerbated by wars in Europe between France and Great Britain. France progressively lost territory to Great Britain, surrendering peninsular Nova Scotia in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and the remainder of New France including what was left of Acadia in the Treaty of Paris (1763).

 

So the French set up colonies first then the Brits gradually took over.

 

The War of 1812 began when the U.S. attacked British forces in Canada in an attempt to reduce their control of North America and the Atlantic. In April 1813, U.S. forces burned York (now Toronto). The British retaliated with the burning of Washington (DC) in a surprise attack in August 1814.

 

We burned down the White House, booyah!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada