RCMP Black Hawk helicopters now patrol Quebec-United States border target “individuals who illegally enter Canada”
Photo: RCMP officers approach Black Hawk helicopter.
On January 30, the Montreal Gazette reported: “Facing the threat of U.S. trade tariffs, the RCMP has deployed a new Black Hawk helicopter to bolster patrols along the Quebec-U.S. border, a move the RCMP says signals to Washington that Canada is serious about tackling illegal migration and drug smuggling.”
The province of Quebec borders four US states: Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.
The Gazette article adds: “The RCMP has acquired two Black Hawk border patrol helicopters, with the other being used in the Prairies. The helicopters are being rented for $5.3 million from Ontario company Helicopter Transport Services from Jan. 17 until the end of March.”
On January 22, the RCMP began patrolling the Manitoba-US border with Black Hawk helicopters. On January 28, patrols with Black Hawk helicopters began on the Alberta-US border.
An RCMP media release on the Alberta patrols says the helicopters will “search for, and target, all illegal activity along the border region; this includes searching for individuals who illegally enter Canada between official ports of entries and for the human smugglers who facilitate their travel. It will also be used to detect and stop illegal smuggling and trafficking of contraband such as illicit drugs into, and out of, Canada.”
Global News further reports: “Since Trump’s election victory, Ottawa has pledged $1.3 billion to increase border security, including 60 new drones in the air along the border and more surveillance towers.”
And Northeast Now adds: “The Black Hawks [that can carry up to twelve officers] are being used to patrol, detect, and respond to both north and southbound threats. Six of the helicopters in the fleet have cameras capable of thermal imaging, and one is capable of hoisting operations.”
The Toronto-based Migrant Rights Network has commented: “Seven years ago, when Trump was first elected, Prime Minister Trudeau declared that ‘refugees are welcome’. Now, as Trump returns to power, the Canadian government has allocated $1.3 billion to increase border policing and create a ‘border strike force’.”
Decades of exclusion
In April 2021, just after Trump’s first term as president ended, Vancouver-based migrant rights activist Harsha Walia commented: “There’s been a lot of emphasis on the ways in which Donald Trump was enacting very exclusionary immigration policies. But border securitization and border controls have been bipartisan practices in the United States. We saw the first policies of militarization at the border with Mexico under Bill Clinton in the late 90s.”
At that same time, Erika Guevara-Rosas, the Americas director at Amnesty International, also said that Biden was “repeating the mistakes of past administrations by securing agreements with Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to further militarize their borders in a bid to stop people who are fleeing from state repression, violent crime, food insecurity, and the devastating effects of the climate crisis.”
In December 2018, Pedro Rios, the director of the American Friends Service Committee US-Mexico Border Program, noted: “Over the past four decades, policies under every presidential administration – regardless of political party – have systematically militarized southern border communities, criminalizing millions of immigrants and creating repressive conditions from California to Texas.”
Border observatory
We are following the human rights implications of Canada’s border policies and are seeking to amplify the voices of migrant rights defenders.
Further reading: PBI-Canada to follow the human rights implications of RCMP Black Hawk helicopters deployed at US-Canada border (PBI-Canada, January 30, 2025).
PBI-Mexico: “The dignity of people is beyond any border”
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