CBSA officers caught giving preferential treatment, associating with criminals, documents reveal

Canadian border officers have been reprimanded for hundreds of acts of misconduct over the past two years — including preferential treatment and criminal association — according to documents obtained by CBC News.

Details of the cases — all of which were deemed founded — were released under access to information law and cover the period Jan. 1, 2020 to Jan. 1, 2022.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said that, during the last fiscal year, it concluded 92 founded investigations. Of those, 12 saw border officers verbally reprimanded, 42 led to written reprimands and 38 ended in suspensions.

That figure is substantially lower than the number for 2020 — the first year to see a reduction in travel due to the pandemic. In 2020, the CBSA reported 215 founded cases resulting in nine dismissals, 82 suspensions, 52 written reprimands and 27 verbal reprimands. (The figures don't say what happened in the remaining cases.)

A CBSA spokesperson said the agency considers a complaint "founded" if "aspects" of it are found to be "valid."

While details of these cases — including names and locations — are redacted in the documents released to CBC News, they describe some troubling behaviour at land and air crossings.

In one case, an officer was found to have failed to properly process travellers and vehicle plates — a key component of the job — for three years.

In another, an officer accessed the CBSA's computer system to remove flags from someone's file. Flags are indicators related to an individual's criminal or travel history that are meant to warn CBSA officers that a particular traveller warrants a closer look.

One founded investigation report said only that the officer in question posed "a security risk" and could "harm the agency's reputation."

The documents also describe multiple founded cases of criminal association — including one involving an officer who "provided [a] false name when stopped by police while having dinner with [a] cocaine smuggler" and another involving an officer with ties to the Hell's Angels.

A handful of cases involved officers engaging in sexual harassment — sexually assaulting a colleague while off duty in one case, spraying insect repellant on a colleague's crotch and sending sexually explicit messages or photographs in others.

Other investigated cases involved interpersonal grievances, such as employees spreading rumours about each other.

Allegations typically are reviewed by CBSA management through the disciplinary process. If the allegations are serious enough, a senior investigator from the agency's security and professional standards directorate launches a formal investigation.

"The CBSA has a responsibility to address misconduct in the workplace and takes this obligation seriously. CBSA management addresses allegations of misconduct," said CBSA spokesperson Patrick Mahaffy.