What was touted as a border security exercise to show off Canada’s preparedness at the Emerson border crossing in Manitoba on Tuesday, turned out to be more of a photo-op for politicians than a show of might or security.
Media were invited 110 km south of Winnipeg to see Canada Border Services Agency staff and RCMP brief politicians and bureaucrats on beefed-up security equipment and protocols.
But media arrived to find the invite ended at the door. Politicians and security personnel met in a room with media left outside to watch through a window.
There was to be a Black Hawk helicopter demonstration patrolling the Canada-U.S. border but despite clear skies and no wind, that was nixed without explanation.
A Canadian Border Services Agency member demonstrated for Premier Wab Kinew, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty and Winnipeg MPs Terry Duguid and Ben Carr a machine used “to detect highly toxic substances” — like fentanyl, which U.S. President Donald Trump cites among his reasons for threatening to impose 25-per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
The U.S. government’s own data shows less than 1 per cent of fentanyl there comes through Canada.
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The “border security exercise” was announced Monday ahead of Trump’s afternoon phone meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. When that meeting wrapped, Trudeau announced a $1.3-billion 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.”
“When we have a secure border, that benefits people in our province and in our country, and if we make those investments at a time that it helps to strengthen the relationship with the U.S., all the better,” said Kinew.
McGuinty stuck to the script — that this is about beefing up security to battle fentanyl at the border.
“We’re laser-focused here on practical measures,” Canada’s public safety minister told reporters after touring the port of entry.
“We’re getting this job done. We’re going to be really wrestling this fentanyl scourge to the ground.”
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