Gun control issue notes—Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security: Study on gun violence (March 1, 2022)

Examination in all modes

The CBSA uses an integrated and risk-based approach by assessing goods before they arrive in Canada, leveraging investments in data and technology to focus on high-risk importations.

All shipments entering Canada are assessed for the risk they present to Canada and Canadians. In some cases this requires deeper and more intrusive inspections and examinations, in accordance with appropriate legal authorities, by officers at ports of entry, while in other areas we rely on data analytics, intelligence and the targeting of specific packages or containers.

The CBSA leverages detection tools like X-ray technology and detector dogs to quickly and effectively identify contraband such as guns and drugs coming across the border.

In 2021, the CBSA conducted over 220,000 commercial examinations, 25,000 more inspections than in 2020.

Performing examinations at the First Point of Arrival can actually be hampered by a number of factors, including: the lack of infrastructure where the rail line crosses the border, the length of a train, the volatility of some commodities, the type of rail cars (for example, tanker cars are under pressure and border service officers cannot open these to conduct an examination), and environmental obstacles/hazards.

For these reasons, it is often preferable to have the train move to the first point along the line where the CBSA can safely interdict and perform a proper examination also known as First Point of Operational Intervention.

The CBSA is currently pursuing opportunities to leverage preclearance authorities for rail shipments. This would see CBSA officers stationed at strategic points in the U.S. – either a hub or at the frontier – working in collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to detect contraband (including firearms) at the earliest possible point and stop it prior to its arrival in Canada.

The CBSA has the necessary authorities in place to start this work, and will begin with some targeted proofs-of-concept to establish the concept of operations and determine the best place for future investment.

The CBSA will continue to modernize the border in the coming years. The Agency will continue to grow its ability to identify high-risk shipments entering our country by preventing them from arriving in Canada through preclearance inspections in the United States, using advanced data analytics and intelligence, and working collaboratively with other law enforcement agencies, partners and stakeholders.

Background

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) uses Advance Commercial Information (ACI) in all modes to assess the risks associated with commercial conveyances and cargo bound for Canada. The CBSA uses a comprehensive approach to ensure that all carriers, including rail carriers, meet all requirements when submitting ACI data.

The CBSA screens goods coming into Canada and closely examines shipments that may pose a threat to the safety of Canadians. To determine which goods may warrant a closer inspection, CBSA Officers look for signs of deception and use intelligence and a risk-management approach.

CBSA Officers are highly trained in examination techniques to analyze risk and intercept prohibited goods from entering Canada. Officers use detection tools such as X-ray machines, ion mobility spectrometers, and detector dogs to expedite the examinations and identify non-compliance. Current examination policy states that when there are reasonable grounds to suspect that goods or conveyances are a threat to national security, an examination must be conducted at the First Point Of Arrival (FPOA).

When a target requiring further examination is identified, there are many factors which prevent CBSA officers from performing examinations at the first point of arrival. For example, in rail mode, this could include:

• a lack of infrastructure
• availability of detection tools
• the length of a train
• the volatility of some commodities
• lack of training and equipment
• type of rail cars
• environmental obstacles/hazards, etc.

Where examinations cannot be carried out at the FPOA, the train has to move to the first subsequent point along the line where the CBSA can safely interdict and perform a proper examination (also known as First Point of Operational Intervention). None of the First Points of Operational Intervention are outfitted or maintained for the purpose of examinations. They can also be a significant distance from a CBSA office and/or a First Point of Arrival, which further limits the CBSA's ability to examine items with the required intensity.

The CBSA is actively pursuing opportunities to use preclearance for rail shipments. This would see CBSA officers stationed at strategic points in the U.S. – either a hub or at the border. Officers would work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to detect contraband (including firearms) at the earliest possible point and stop it from entering Canada. The CBSA already has the authorities in place to start this work, and will begin with some targeted proofs-of-concept to draft a plan for these operations and determine the best locations.

Examinations of commercial shipments for trade (called "release examinations") in all modes are carried out at their final destination and not at the First Point of Arrival.

Cross Border Firearms Task Force

In 2021, Canada and the U.S. announced a cross-border firearms task force to tackle the illegal movement of firearms and drugs through cross-border travel and trade.

The task force will collaborate with the Cross-Border Crime Forum to inform the forum's work and make communities safer.

In Canada, the task force is led by the CBSA and supported by the RCMP. Our counterparts to the south include U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

When it comes specifically to firearms, task force members are working with Canadian and U.S. law enforcement to combat the smuggling of firearms, firearms parts, and devices that are prohibited from export or import, as well as target the organized crime and activities that enable this smuggling.

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Background

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How the task force was created

On February 23, 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joseph R. Biden met and unveiled the Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership, detailing commitments on various issues, including combatting firearms smuggling. The roadmap included the reestablishment of the Cross-Border Crime Forum (CBCF) to strengthen information-sharing, address justice reform and cross-border law enforcement challenges to make communities safer.

The President and Prime Minister also noted their common objective to reduce gun violence and directed officials to explore the creation of a cross-border task force to address gun smuggling and trafficking.

To help address this challenge, the two countries have formed the Canada-United States cross-border task force, under the Cross-Border Crime Forum, to be co-led by the CBSA for Canada and jointly by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) within the Department of Justice, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE/HSI) within the Department of Homeland Security for the U.S.

The task force terms of reference were signed August 12, 2021, and two meetings have been hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa to date.

What the task force does

The task force is a forum to scope and identify ways to counter firearms smuggling across the United States-Canadian border.

Task force members are expected to collaborate with relevant domestic government agencies and international organizations to combat the threat posed by smuggled firearms, firearms parts, and devices prohibited from export or import, as well as target the groups and activities enabling this threat.

The task force is expected to support and inform the work of the CBCF by considering issues specifically requested by the CBCF as well as recommending issues for CBCF consideration and providing progress updates on its efforts.

 Task force members include senior-level officials with appropriate expertise and security clearance from the ATF, ICE/HSI, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the RCMP and the CBSA.

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CBSA Firearms Strategy

The CBSA firearms strategy identifies criminal networks and trafficking routes in order to prevent illicit firearms from crossing the border and disrupt criminal networks' smuggling activities.

The strategy is heavily focused on partnerships, involving almost all parts of the Agency, police, and other law enforcement partners both domestically and abroad to keep our communities safe.

In 2021, the CBSA National Firearms Intelligence Desk (NFID) was established. This desk unites CBSA partners to maintain a real-time picture of the threat of illicit firearms in Canada and their movement across our borders.

The average yearly seizures from 2016 to 2020 were 436 seizures (656 individual items). In 2021, there were 407 seizures totalling 1,121 items.

In addition to our intelligence and criminal investigation teams, the CBSA's National Targeting Centre is working closely with CBSA offices as well as with our Border Five partners to identify firearms and related prohibited parts headed for Canada.

The postal mode of firearms smuggling is showing a particularly elevated risk. Firearm parts, including uncontrolled parts, are being imported into the country and used to create illicit firearms. For instance, in 2021 the CBSA seized 3650 replica firearms. Many of these were imported and declared appropriately but met the velocity or determination of a real firearm and could easily be converted into a firearm.

Frontline firearms teams

Quebec Region

The CBSA's Quebec Region has formed a Weapons Smuggling Integrated Enforcement Team from CBSA intelligence and criminal investigations personnel. Its projects focus on seizing firearms and weapons in the postal and courier modes that are destined for the province of Quebec, and projects involving importation of firearms parts that may be used to produce ghost guns (unregistered firearms).

The CBSA's Quebec Region works closely with law enforcement partners across the province to further investigations into the illegal cross-border movement of firearms. Many of these cases remain under active investigation.

For example, as a result of a CBSA intercept and seizure of a prohibited silencer being illegally imported into Canada, the RCMP were able to arrest a resident of l'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec and seized homemade bombs, firearms, silencers, magazines, volumes of ammunition and prohibited weapons in February 2021.

Greater Toronto Area

In its effort to combat the smuggling of illicit firearms, the CBSA established two operational teams in the Greater Toronto Area:

New tools and programs available to BSOs

To help identify illicit guns in postal facilities, six new X-ray machines were purchased and five have been deployed to [Redacted] mail processing facilities, allowing the CBSA to process all mail in a consistent, efficient, and non-intrusive manner. One unit is being used in a pilot project aimed at improving the detection of firearms and firearm parts.

Five new detector dog teams were trained and deployed in 2019.

A national training course for CBSA officers on vehicle concealment techniques for firearms and weapons was launched and then temporarily halted due to COVID-19 protocols, but is expected to resume in the spring of 2022.

The use of hand-held and pallet-sized X-ray technology and the deployment of Contraband Outfitted Mobile Examination Trucks (COMETs) is expanding into the air mode at select major airports [Redacted].

Background

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is responsible for facilitating international trade and travel across Canada's border, while ensuring the health and safety of Canadians. Specifically, the Agency helps to protect Canadian communities by combatting the movement of illegal firearms into Canada.

The 2020 Speech from the Throne outlined the Government of Canada's commitment to "fight gun smuggling and trafficking by strengthening measures at the border and increasing penalties." The 2019 Speech From the Throne and mandate letter to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness also set out direction to provide the CBSA with additional resources to detect and stop gun smuggling.

Focus of the Strategy

While there are various initiatives underway in the Agency to combat firearms smuggling, the Intelligence and Enforcement (I&E) Business Line plays a unique role across the travel and trade continuum. As such, the Firearms Strategy focuses on the identification, disruption, interdiction, enforcement, investigation and prosecution of illicit firearms and related activities using an intelligence-led, problem-solving and integrated approach. It encompasses activities that can be conducted or influenced by I&E personnel, and can help guide non-I&E programs and operations in supporting the fight against illicit firearms smuggling. It is recognized fully that no approach to combat this threat can be successful without internal and external partners, and that there is no "one-size fits all" approach.

National Firearms Intelligence Desk

The key to this multifaceted approach is the newly established National Firearms Intelligence Desk (NFID). This desk brings together partners across the Agency, all of whom are combatting the firearms threat, by breaking down silos between the various CBSA programs and operations. Hosting national calls and coordinating information and intelligence, the desk brings together intelligence, immigration enforcement, criminal investigators, targeting, security screening, international liaisons, Port of Entry operations, commercial and traveller policy and program areas and more—to collectively focus on firearms.

Intelligence-Led

An intelligence-led approach emphasizes the collection, analysis, production and actioning of intelligence throughout the strategy. Intelligence collection activities are guided by intelligence questions/gaps, intelligence products are produced to inform decision makers and personnel, and intelligence is ultimately turned into action at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels. The sharing and dissemination of timely information and intelligence with internal and external partners can be very effective for disruption efforts.

Tailored to each Region while keeping an integrated approach

The Agency, headquartered in Ottawa, has seven Regions in Canada as well as an international network. Protecting the border requires an understanding of 10 provinces, 3 territories, and 3573 municipalities, and partnerships with potentially 180 police forces and 14 other federal law enforcement agencies. Therefore, the Agency cannot afford to adopt a "one-size fits all approach." Interventions need to be guided by intelligence, but specifically tailored to the nature and causes of gun smuggling in each area. This strategy requires that each region establish an intelligence-led plan specific to their own environments.

While a firearm might be smuggled into Canada via one region, the smuggling might be facilitated by a criminal group based in a second region, and the ultimate destination or where the firearm is used could be a third region. So while each region and implicated program of the CBSA must develop a tailored plan, the plans must be shared and discussed with other areas of the CBSA to ensure visibility of the overall activity and to ensure a coordinated approach.

There must be open and regular communication by all parties involved in this strategy. An integrated approach also recognizes that firearms smuggling is linked to various other threats. Firearms are often used for protection, for instance, against other criminal elements involved in drug trafficking.
Therefore, I&E partners assigned to this strategy must also ensure they have connectivity and visibility to those CBSA programs with a focus on drug smuggling, human smuggling, currency smuggling or other illicit activity.

Partnerships

The CBSA does not have a mandate to investigate organized crime or gang activity per se; however, a significant proportion of activity involving crime guns involves organized crime or gangs. Therefore it must increase its knowledge and understanding of this kind of criminality through intelligence collection, analysis, training and partnerships.

To ensure that the CBSA has the elements it needs to identify, disrupt, interdict, and enforce gun smuggling activities, the CBSA must also collaborate with law enforcement partners to share intelligence, build a shared threat picture, and conduct joint operations. To this end, we have embedded resources in the U.S., and vice versa.

Equally important are the partnerships the I&E Business Line develops with internal CBSA partners, particularly in the Travellers and Commercial and Trade (CTB) Branches whose officers, tools, and policies play a key role in combatting firearm smuggling. Other areas of the CBSA, such as the Strategic Policy Branch (SPB), the Information Science & Technology Branch (ISTB), and the Finance & Corporate Management Branch (FCMB) also play a role in enabling I&E operations, and supporting the success of the strategy.

CBSA initiatives funded under the Initiative to Take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence (ITAAGGV)

Under the ITTAAGV, the CBSA received $51.5 million over five years to ensure CBSA personnel are given the tools and equipment to ensure their safety and the safety of their environment while maintaining their ability to achieve their mandate of protecting our borders at ports of entry.

This funding includes:

• Dual View X-rays and Software/Network to intercept illicit guns in the postal stream
• $10.83 million over seven years and $1.21 million in ongoing funding to screen significantly more mail items at all postal facilities

The additional funding for the CBSA allows for investments in an all-weather detector dog training facility, additional detector dog teams at key highway crossings, the expansion of technology at postal centres and air cargo facilities, and key training in the detection of concealed goods in vehicles crossing our borders.

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The National Targeting Centre (NTC)

The National Targeting Centre continues to work with Regional Intelligence and Enforcement personnel, the National Firearms Intelligence Desk, and Border Five partners in establishing commercial threat identifiers and comprehensive rules for pre-arrival targeting of firearms and related prohibited parts. The NTC has also been assisting on multiple firearms investigations through the analysis of historical import history linked to individuals who have received prohibited firearms or related parts. [Redacted]

Quebec Region

As mentioned in the main bullets, the CBSA's Quebec Region has formed a Weapons Smuggling Integrated Enforcement Team (WSIET)

As part of these projects, between April and November 2021, the Quebec Region assessed nearly 150 referrals resulting from the port of entry interceptions of firearms parts, including silencers.

The CBSA has launched 10 criminal investigations in response to their work, in addition to initiation of a number of further intelligence probes. Based on referrals from the CBSA to partner law enforcement agencies, over 25 controlled deliveries of intercepted parts have been undertaken to advance criminal investigations into firearms-related offences within the province of Quebec since April 2021.

The CBSA's Quebec Region works closely with various law enforcement partners across the province to further investigations into illegal cross-border firearms movements. During 2021 alone, the region has conducted joint investigations or referred cases to the RCMP, various guns and gang units of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) throughout the province, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), and the Service de police de l'agglomération de Longueuil (SPAL), among others. While many of these cases remain under active investigation by the CBSA and partner law enforcement agencies, we can confirm that the CBSA's information sharing and partnership with Quebec law enforcement colleagues and the use of various investigative techniques have led to inland seizures across Quebec of multiple firearms parts, silencers, other weapons and narcotics.

Enforcement Continuum

The CBSA uses data and intelligence to determine trends, methods, smuggling routes, and potential entities involved in illicit activity.

Identifying and stopping illicit activity can happen at any point in the travel and trade continuum and enforcement can be carried out either at the border, or before the illicit materials reach the border (with the help of international partners), or after illicit materials enter Canada (with assistance from local law enforcement agencies).

The responsibility for preventing the illicit flow of guns across the border is shared by federal law enforcement partners on both sides of the border. The threat is complex, necessitating an integrated approach with police and other law enforcement partners, within Canada and abroad.

The CBSA regularly engages in joint firearms smuggling investigations with policing partners, including the RCMP, provincial police (such as the Sûreté du Québec and the Ontario Provincial Police), and local policing agencies.

Border-related criminal offences involving firearms are identified in a number of ways, including trends, investigations or law enforcement referrals, during the course of regulatory examinations, or as a result of other intelligence-gathering or investigative efforts by the CBSA.

Criminal firearms offences found during routine examinations of a person are referred to a law enforcement partner.

By their nature, Customs Act infractions related to firearms detected at a port of entry are often also contraventions of the Criminal Code.

Because the Agency does not have the authority to investigate Criminal Code infractions alone (as stated in the CBSA Act), the CBSA conducts joint investigations with the RCMP, other law enforcement agencies, and police.

When an investigation does not reveal a customs-related offence under the Customs Act, the CBSA will hand off the case to the RCMP or police to investigate under the Criminal Code.

Border-related offences linked to major organized crime activity are also referred to the RCMP.

CBSA investigators participate in different law enforcement task forces and joint force operations that deal with firearms investigations, which may lead to firearms being interdicted and later enforcement actions.

Thanks to follow-up investigations that often happen after initial border interceptions, our law enforcement officials in Quebec and across the country have removed significant numbers of firearms and other weapons from our communities and brought numerous individuals before the courts to face criminal charges under the Criminal Code and the Customs Act.

The CBSA does not have the authority to use certain specialized police techniques, such as controlled deliveries (which allow illicit activity to happen as part of a larger investigation). When firearms are intercepted in the postal or courier stream, the RCMP (or other relevant police) will assist by conducting controlled deliveries of firearms or weapons when required.

Similarly, the CBSA will assist RCMP (or other relevant police) by providing border-crossing data in cases where firearms have been found inland, but are believed to have been smuggled into Canada.

From January 1, 2020 to January 31, 2022, the CBSA opened 66 assistance cases involving firearms.

If pressed

On September 22, 2018, an individual imported 17 prohibited firearms, 2 restricted firearms and 33 prohibited devices (1 silencer and 32 magazines). She did not declare or obtain authorization to import these items, all of which were hidden in a compartment in her vehicle.

As a result of charges laid by the CBSA, on February 9, 2022, the Quebec court sentenced the individual to a two year suspended sentence followed by two year probation.

Successful investigative collaboration between numerous Canadian and U.S. law enforcement officials resulted in U.S. courts also convicting at least three individuals involved in this smuggling scheme, resulting in prison sentences of up to 120 months.

Further, in December 2020 and January 2021, border services officers working at the Vancouver International Mail Centre made two seizures of prohibited firearm suppressors destined for an address in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

These seizures prompted an investigation by the CBSA's Criminal Investigations Section in the GTA Region, which indicated that the importer was in possession of, and was manufacturing, illicit firearms in his home. On April 26 2021, CBSA criminal investigators executed search warrants on two GTA residences, and seized: ten firearms (seven of which were loaded); multiple prohibited devices and weapons, including firearm suppressors; 19 overcapacity magazines; a stun gun; over 600 rounds of ammunition; and, narcotics and cash.

A 43-year-old male was arrested by CBSA criminal investigators and charged with multiple Customs Act and Criminal Code infractions.

Background

Port of Entry examinations, seizures and enforcement actions

There are many important firearms matters that are connected to Canada's borders. They include:

• people who fail to declare firearms at the land border (but without nefarious intent)
• the legitimate importation of commercial firearms that are bound by legislative restrictions and requirements
• undeclared/smuggled or mis-described firearms
• restricted or prohibited firearms parts

The CBSA must ensure that these border issues are appropriately addressed. The goods in question may enter the country through any mode. They might be in a traveller's or commercial driver's possession. They may enter via a highway or other modes, through commercial shipments in the air, marine or highway modes, or through postal or courier shipments.

Seizing firearms at the border: Different scenarios

While the Customs Act allows the seizure of goods and conveyances that contravene the Act or regulations, officers have discretionary powers that allow them to decide what course of action to pursue.

While officers maintain legal discretion to arrest individuals who are identified as smuggling goods, in the case of firearms, such individuals are generally arrested immediately following the interdiction of a smuggled firearm, as a criminal investigation may result.

In addition to ensuring the individual accused of smuggling firearms is not free to leave the port of entry, the arrest also triggers the reading of rights and cautions to the individual to protect admissibility in any future court proceedings of any subsequent statements made. In many cases, an individual may not be present with the goods, such as in the case of postal or courier shipments or commercial shipments in the air or marine modes. These individuals may only be identified through subsequent investigations.

Referrals to CBSA Criminal Investigations and joint investigations with police partners

In accordance with the Agency's prosecution policy, port of entry (POE) officers encountering smuggled or improperly declared restricted or prohibited firearms will, in many cases, be expected to refer those seizures for further investigation by the CBSA's dedicated criminal investigation teams located within each regional office.

Not every firearm seizure necessarily results in a criminal investigation. For example, many seizures occur at POEs as a result of American citizens failing to declare at the border firearms which they legally possess in their home state. The CBSA officers consider all information available at the time of the seizure to assess the appropriate extent of CBSA enforcement efforts. In many cases, the forfeiture of the firearm provides sufficient response, particularly in cases where no previous criminality exists and there is no evidence that the firearm was intended to be used for illegal purposes or transferred to other people in Canada. In such cases, further investigation and the ensuing resource implications for the CBSA, the Crown and the courts would not be in the public interest.

By contrast, in many other cases, the CBSA individually or in conjunction with policing partners will launch further criminal investigations with the intent of confirming the extent of the criminal activity, identifying responsible parties, and pursuing criminal charges. Upon receiving notifications of firearms seizures, CBSA intelligence and criminal investigations personnel conduct various queries to assess links to known criminal organizations, previous seizures, enforcement actions or criminal activity, previous import and cross-border history, results of any firearms tracing done by U.S. enforcement agencies, and any other available intelligence. Information may be gathered from a number of third parties and through the use of various lawful investigative authorities available to the CBSA. These analyses and initial investigative steps ultimately produce a fuller intelligence picture. Results of these analyses, in addition to seizure-specific information (such as the level of concealment), informs the CBSA's decisions about whether or not to launch a criminal investigation, particularly in cases involving seizures in the mail or courier streams.

Regardless of whether the CBSA initiates a criminal investigation, information is maintained in CBSA records in accordance with retention policies to support future intelligence and risk-assessment needs related to cross-border firearms smuggling.

The CBSA participates in various joint forces operations with police agencies across the country, especially with the RCMP, as well as provincial and local police agencies. This includes a number of operations focused specifically on firearms-related crime. The CBSA regularly refers cases to a police partner for a joint investigative follow-up.

Criminal investigations, whether conducted by the CBSA alone or with police partners, often span many months and years as investigators use various investigative methods. These methods may take significant time, such as:

• initiating a criminal investigation
• collecting evidence through interviews of the suspect and witnesses
• collecting evidence through the use of production orders and search warrants
• analyzing and preparing summaries of seized evidence for Crown attorneys
• laying criminal charges
• supporting Crown prosecutors throughout the ensuing trial