People of the CBSA: Jonelle Hupé's story – Video transcript

Transcript

Jonelle Hupé, A/Chief of Operations (Emerson, MB port of entry)

Images of Jonelle working at the Emerson port of entry, meeting with colleagues, and interacting with clients.

Hi, my name is Jonelle Hupé. I'm currently the acting chief of operations for the commercial operation in Emerson. We have a 24-7 commercial operation. We process many trucks a day, almost 600 trucks a day. We examine the goods, ensuring that everything that is declared is what's on the truckloads.

At the end of the day, we all want to get the bad guys and keep the bad stuff out of Canada and off our streets and away from our children, so that's really, really important to me. When I was a BSO, I had referred in a foreign national that was coming up to Canada seeking entry, and there was something that just kind of didn't hit me the right way – kind of like my "spidey-sense" was going off, and it turned out that he actually had a lot of images that were illegal. He had been doing some voyeurism down in the U.S., and that led to him being arrested and being brought back to the States, and that individual is now doing over 30 years' worth of jail time in the U.S.

I'm a big proponent of females in law enforcement. I think we need to increase our capacity of female representation. I'm also a proud Métis from Manitoba here. I can serve all our clients in both official languages. Diversity is very important and inclusion, and I believe that because we are the face of Canada – we're the first face you see when you're entering Canada – that we should be diverse and be representative of the Canadian people, which is very diverse.

I'm the first one in my family who's ever pursued a career in law enforcement or a career with the CBSA. It's a challenging job but it's a rewarding job, and there are so many different things you can do within the agency.

The following text appears on the screen:
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada,
represented by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, 2021

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Date modified:

2021-06-03