Pubdate: Fri, 24 Apr 2015
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Authors: Alex Boutilier and Nevil Hunt
Page: A1

BORDER GUARDS STRIP-SEARCHED U.S. STUDENTS, DOCUMENTS SHOW

Agency says its guidelines were reviewed after entire busload was
involved in 'nightmare' incident

OTTAWA-  A busload of American college and university students was
strip-searched by Canadian border guards three years ago in an
incident that violated government policy and may have contravened the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, documents show.

According to an internal Canadian Border Services Agency report
obtained by Metroland Media and the Star, the mass strip search was
carried out at the Thousand Islands Bridge border crossing in
Lansdowne, Ont., on Dec. 31, 2011.

The bus, carrying 48 American students aged 18 to 25, was headed to
Montreal to ring in the new year, followed by a couple of days of
skiing at Mont Tremblant. The students were mostly males, but there
were at least 10 females. The report said the tour bus arrived at the
crossing about 11 a.m. that day.

When an initial immigration check revealed "past criminality" among
some of the passengers, the students were asked to step off the bus. A
search of the vehicle revealed six grams of marijuana and a small
amount of what was believed to be cocaine, the report said.

The following several hours were "a nightmare . . . a horror story,"
one passenger said in an interview. The man, now 27, requested his
name not be used for this story.

"I had to go into a room, with two guys that were sitting at a table,
and take off all my clothes, and then drop my pants and turn around,"
he said.

"(The passengers) were pretty agitated. . . . There were some girls
crying. They were pretty upset."

It's not clear why CBSA launched the review, or if anyone had
complained about the incident. But the documents show the CBSA kept
the strip search under wraps for more than three years, waiting to see
if details would leak out before commenting.

"If the issue becomes known to politicians or the media (it) could
raise questions about CBSA's mandate and authority to conduct personal
searches of travellers," the review said.

A media plan was drafted and a statement was readied in case reporters
contacted CBSA for comment.

In a statement issued Thursday, a CBSA spokesman, Chris Kealey, said
the agency reviewed its strip-search policies after the incident and
sent an operational bulletin to all staff in February 2012.

"For example, each individual case is to be looked at independently of
any other traveller and that the presence of specific indicators for
that traveller be considered," Kealey wrote in an email.

"In addition, learning modules were developed on the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms and CBSA Personal Searches . . . and have been
part of the core curriculum for all new CBSA officers since the fall
of 2012."

The report also made several observations and recommendations and said
that "a greater focus on the legislation, policies/guidelines (around
strip searches) and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is required to
address deficiencies."

A separate memo, written after the initial report, said: "The decision
. . . to conduct the 48 personal searches was not in keeping with CBSA
Policies and Procedures."

The memo stated that after the students were taken off the bus that
morning, border officials sent for a drug-sniffing dog - the nearest
available was at the Ottawa airport - for further inspection. The dog
found nothing.

Their superior then asked for all 48 students to be strip-searched,
one by one, in the single "personal search" room at the facility.

The report says the request came directly from Chief Mark Pergunas,
the top border officer at the crossing.

Reached Thursday afternoon at the Thousand Islands bridge facility,
Pergunas declined to comment.

"No comment, thanks very much," Pergunas said.

"I understand you're talking to some other folks at CBSA. And they'll
cover off on anything."

Kealey said Pergunas approved the search without notifying his
superiors, but did not say if he had faced any discipline.

After the strip searches began, two more students admitted to having
about 30 pills.

The passenger who spoke to the Star said some of those pills were
Adderall or similar drugs, prescribed but without proper
documentation. The incident report referenced amphetamines.

Sources who were not present during the search but have knowledge
about what went on said front-line officers were uncomfortable with
the request for the mass strip search. Worried they may have been
breaking the law, the officers began taking notes to "cover their
asses," one of the sources said in an interview. "When someone on an
airplane gets stopped with drugs, (you) don't strip search everyone on
the plane. (You) do a strip search only as a last resort. And in this
case there were no more indicators of further drugs."

The passenger said the guards seemed uncomfortable.

"It seemed like they didn't really want to be there," he
said.

Bruce Ryder, a professor at Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto, said
charter rights extend to travellers crossing into Canada, and that the
students would probably have a good case that those rights were violated.

"Courts have said entering the country you have diminished expectation
of privacy, but that doesn't mean your right ceases to exist," Ryder
said. "It strikes me that a small amount of drugs shouldn't raise the
suspicion that extends to everybody on the bus. To strip search
everyone strikes me as unreasonable under those circumstances."

More than three years later, a charter challenge seems unlikely. But
the passenger said the experience left the students jarred. He said
he's crossed the Canadian border 25 times or more, but "that was
definitely the worst experience (he) ever had."

Although the searches violated CBSA policy, both the internal report
and senior management complimented the professionalism of the
front-line border agents involved - if not their managers.

"Great job by all," a CBSA official wrote after the
incident.

"Back to normal now."
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MAP posted-by: Matt