The rush to deploy “frontline personnel” to the border to avoid Trump’s tariffs overlooks human rights concerns about militarization
RCMP photo: Black Hawk helicopters will be deployed to the New Brunswick-US border on Wednesday February 5.
The National Post reports: “Canada has agreed to deploy its $1.3-billion border enhancement plan along with thousands of frontline personnel to strengthen security on the U.S. boundary in exchange for the White House pausing 25-per-cent tariffs for at least 30 days.”
On February 3, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”
The Canadian Press adds: “[Public Safety Minister David] McGuinty said the 10,000 frontline staff Canada is talking about could encompass a broad range of officials, including border officers on the front lines and intelligence officers behind the scenes. ‘So what we’ve managed to do here is take a look at how many people are working, and it’s 10,000. And we’ve got hundreds of new officers,’ McGuinty said. ‘We’ll look to see where it makes most sense to deploy the assets we’ve got, the people, or if we need to we will bump it up.’ The Canada Border Services Agency has 8,500 front-line staff already.”
The border plan also includes “a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering.”
Black Hawk helicopters
On January 22, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) began patrolling the Manitoba-Minnesota-North Dakota border with Black Hawk helicopters. On January 28, patrols began on the Alberta-Montana border. Those were extended to the Quebec-Maine-New Hampshire-New York-Vermont border on January 30. They are scheduled to begin on the New Brunswick-Maine border on February 5.
Photo: Heavily armed RCMP officers onboard a Black Hawk helicopter near the Alberta-Montana border, January 29, 2025.
Photo: “Asylum-seekers wait in line to cross into Canada from the U.S. border on Roxham Road in Champlain, New York, on Feb. 25, 2023. Photo by Christinne Muschi /Reuters.”
Poilievre calls for Canadian Armed Forces on the border
The Canadian Press is also reporting: “Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Ottawa to send Canadian Armed Forces troops and helicopters to the U.S. border ‘to spot and intercept risks.’ …Installing border surveillance towers and truck-mounted drone systems to spot incursions and track deportees to ensure they are leaving is also part of Poilievre’s recommendations.”
Photo: A Canadian Armed Forces Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
2,000 more Border agents
The CBC further notes: “The Opposition leader also said a Conservative government would hire 2,000 more Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) agents and extend the powers of the agency along the entire border. As it stands, the CBSA is in charge of official ports of entry and the RCMP patrols in between.”
The CBSA as a branch of the Armed Forces
The CBC also reports: “Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe [has also now] suggested Ottawa look into making the CBSA a branch of the Canadian Armed Forces. The premier said it would make it easier to deploy military troops along the border.”
That article adds: “Moe also suggested the Canadian Armed Forces absorbing the CBSA would help Canada get closer to meeting NATO’s military investment benchmark of two per cent of gross domestic product.”
Border militarization
The California-based National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) has cautioned: “The outcome of border militarization has not been to deter migration, but instead to create more vulnerability. …Border militarization includes not just increased tactics, technology, and strategy, but also rhetoric and ideology.”
The San Diego-based Southern Border Communities Coalition adds: “Turning the region we call home into a war zone doesn’t make us safer. In fact, it leads to more violence, corruption and even death. We can’t afford to continue with harmful enforcement-only policies that militarize our communities.”
Doctors without Borders also says: “Militarization of borders and mass expulsions increase dangers for asylum seekers and migrants.”
And Maria Coronado with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has commented: “A militarized approach to the border not only harms undocumented people, but it also harms entire communities. Border Patrol agents racially profile and harass people of color across the region. They drive recklessly through our communities and fatally wound our neighbors in vehicle pursuits. [The U.S. Customs and Border Protection] CBP’s use of intrusive surveillance technologies erode border residents’ privacy rights and force them to live under the constant gaze of the federal government.”
Border militarization vs climate mitigation
In October 2021, the Transnational Institute reported Canada spent an average of $1.9 billion a year (over the years 2013-18) on the militarization of its borders while only contributing $149 million a year over the same period on climate financing to mitigate the impacts of climate change that drive forced migration.
The report concludes: “The world’s wealthiest countries have chosen how they approach global climate action – by militarising their borders.”
We continue to follow this.
Additional reading: RCMP Black Hawk helicopters now patrol Quebec-United States border target “individuals who illegally enter Canada” (January 31, 2025), PBI-Canada to follow the human rights implications of RCMP Black Hawk helicopters deployed at US-Canada border (January 30, 2025) and RCMP to deploy Sikorsky-Lockheed Martin Black Hawk helicopters on border as early as January 17 (January 16, 2025).
“The dignity of people is beyond any border”
Video: Saltillo Migrant Shelter director Alberto Xicotencátl Carrasco denouncing federal police attempting an immigration check at the Shelter, July 24, 2019.
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