Since U.S. President Donald Trump has worked to improve security among neighboring countries, RCMP officials in Windsor, Ontario have patrolled the borders of Canada’s U.S. in ways they have never done before.
Starting in December, const. Ian Smith and his many more than 40 colleagues in southwestern Ontario have been driving a 12-hour shift along the Sarnia, along the Detroit River, along the Port Burwell, along the Port Burwell in southeast London, along the coastline of about 800 kilometers.
“We are looking for anything suspicious about people or contraband, drugs, goods entering Canada or leaving Canada illegally,” Smith said.
Canada announced a $1.3 billion border security plan in December after Trump feared drug and immigration movements. Smith said Ottawa asked the RCMP to “security the border.”
He said that didn’t really generate much in the first four months of these patrols, partly because the waterways weren’t very active in cold weather.
But Smith said this type of work is difficult to quantify.
“We’re doing this here every day to stop them, so if we don’t catch them, hopefully it’s because we’re stopping it,” Smith said.
“There are 800 kilometers [of coastline]so how do we keep patrolling? This is impossible,” he added.
In January, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) announced a deterrent operation, which teamed up with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to enhance border security. Two hundred OPP officials are committed to the border between the two countries.
“Canada’s more coordinated team approach includes more boots locally, is the only way to detect, block and destroy illegal activities and ensure safety and security in Canadian and American communities,” Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said in a January press release.
RCMP helicopters now patrol border
To help with a large amount of coastline coverage on the ground, the RCMP also recently sent officials into helicopters.
Smith said the last time an RCMP officer conducted an illegal activity on a waterway in southwestern Ontario involved smuggling on the St. Clair River in September.
During Smith’s nine years at Windsor (RCMP), he will spend most of his time behind the scenes conducting drug investigations.
The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) will find drugs at the border. The RCMP will then investigate where they came from and where they were going to make other arrests and seizures.
Now, RCMP officials have spent a lot of time patrolling the border while continuing these investigations.
The officer checks the truck to us for the first time
Another new aspect of the RCMP at the border is that it has participated in checking commercial trucks leaving Canada and heading to the U.S. Ambassador Bridge.
Philipe is a four-year-old German shepherd who is trained to detect fentanyl. This is one of only a few dogs in Ontario with this ability and has been with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for about a year.
For CBSA, it has the right to challenge outbound drivers and inspect their vehicles since 2019.
However, the spokesperson did not say that this is a frequency and whether these outbound searches have increased in recent months.
“In general, the indicator-based outbound test is targeted,” said Rebecca Purdy, senior spokesman for CBSA.
Purdy also pointed to Operation Blizzard, which was launched last month and attempted to intercept illegal goods entering or leaving the country. She said the program focuses on fentanyl and other narcotics.
