Thank you.
Good morning everyone. Thank you very much for asking me to appear before the committee today.
My name is Megan Imrie. I am a director within the enforcement branch of the Canada Border Services Agency. I'm very pleased to be here today representing the agency.
I'd like to begin by telling you about how our agency deals with the important issue of trafficking in persons. The CBSA is committed to the Government of Canada's approach to combatting trafficking in persons by detecting and preventing trafficking operations and the transport of victims to Canada.
The CBSA's trafficking in persons--TIP--policy is consistent with our overall mandate of managing Canada's borders and fighting cross-border crime by preventing the irregular movement of people even before they reach Canadian territory.
The Canada Border Services Agency is engaged in multiple initiatives and continues to work with its counterparts in the public safety (PS) portfolio and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to mitigate TIP activities leading up to and during the Olympics.
The CBSA's responsibilities in relation to combatting TIP include working with overseas partners to combat irregular migration that may include TIP; detecting and intercepting fraudulently obtained documents to help prevent the transportation of potential TIP victims to Canada; and, upon detection of potential trafficking-in-persons victims, assisting in the safety and security of potential victims by separating them from the suspected human traffickers.
The Canada Border Services Agency provides assistance in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenders. The CBSA works with key partner agencies in Canada--such as Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, local police agencies, and non-government organizations--to ensure that victims are provided with the necessary referrals and assistance, including to the CIC for appropriate consideration of immigration status, as warranted.
The CBSA requires that all new border services officers, or BSOs, complete a “People at Risk” workshop as part of their port-of-entry training to prepare them to deal with vulnerable persons. Our migration integrity officers, or MIOs, receive extensive specialized training, including training in passport and document fraud, intelligence collection and reporting, identifying inadmissible persons and threats to national security, and detecting migrant smuggling and human trafficking.
Internally, the Canada Border Services Agency has been preparing for the games for over two years, analyzing its requirements and building the capacities required to facilitate the processing of people and goods and to ensure adherence to border legislation.
The CBSA's internal Olympic and Paralympic task force was formed in October 2008 to lead national and Pacific region efforts to ensure that the agency is effective in helping coordinate core infrastructure.
The Canada Border Services Agency has no information that would indicate an increase in human trafficking directly in relation to the Olympics. That being said, the CBSA will have plans and measures in place to ensure the overall readiness of the organization. To ensure the security of our borders, the CBSA, in collaboration with security partners, uses a variety of risk assessment tools and programs.
Two of the advanced systems we have in place are the advance passenger information program and the integrated primary inspection line. These tools are used to screen everyone seeking to enter Canada. In addition, there is an accreditation program in place for family and participants in the 2010 games. CBSA is an active member of the interdepartmental working group on trafficking in persons as well as a working group on TIP and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. In support of the interdepartmental working group's efforts in mitigating trafficking in persons, experts--including from the CBSA--deliver TIP awareness sessions to our own CBSA officers and other law enforcement officers across Canada as part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police national human trafficking workshop, which you've heard about from my colleague. From 2008 to present, CBSA officers have participated in workshops in 17 Canadian cities.
Building on the “pushing out our borders” concept, the Olympic and Paralympic task force has allocated funding to the migration integrity officer program to enhance the capacity to intercept improperly documented passengers headed to Canada; to airline personnel training to screen and identify inadmissible passengers; and to intelligence gathering activities. This will allow CBSA to prevent potential victims from being exploited by traffickers in Canada.
The CBSA recently published a policies and procedures manual on TIP in February 2009. The manual is now available to all our CBSA officers and is designed to assist our officers in detecting, intercepting, and dealing with instances of human trafficking, including the proper referral protocols and necessary contact information. In addition, the CBSA enforcement branch recently established a national human trafficking network. It is made up of regional intelligence officers who will participate in monthly conference calls in order to share information and build expertise across Canada.
Finally, the CBSA will be ramping up capacity in the Pacific region to perform primary, secondary, and enforcement activities at affected ports of entry. Specific investments have been made in Vancouver marine operations, where additional resources will be made available to perform increased vessel rummages and crew-passenger verifications leading up to and during the games. We have also expanded our intelligence capacity by increasing the presence of intelligence officers in the region. We will also be relocating approximately 100 CBSA officers to impacted locations in Pacific region and additional staff to Pearson International Airport in Toronto.
I have no doubt that the increased vigilance made possible by the current programs I have described will mitigate the risk of human trafficking at the Olympics.
TIP is a serious problem, and the CBSA remains committed to working domestically and within the global community to combat it. The CBSA will continue to work closely with international partners to stem the problem at its source. The CBSA will assist in the identification of possible TIP victims by ensuring that foreign nationals seeking entry to Canada have proper travel documents, and are entering Canada for a genuine and a lawful purpose.
Thank you.