Canada Border Services Agency guards are being sent to the G7 leaders meeting unarmed, and the union president says it will put his members at risk.
“When a dangerous situation occurs you have to be able to respond quickly,” Customs and Immigration Union President Jean-Pierre Fortin told CTV Montreal. “When our officers are performing duties as a law enforcement officer they need to be fully-tooled.”
About 20 officers from Montreal and other regions in Quebec are being deployed to the G7, where they will inspect people and their luggage who will be entering the security perimeter around La Malbaie, where the G7 leaders will meet at the Manoir Richelieu Hotel.
“When we’re in uniform we should have our sidearm,” Fortin.
Fortin says the CBSA is being too rigid in applying a rule that CBSA guards can only be armed when they are at the border.
