Vancouver Sun ^ | March 2, 2002 | Peter O'Neil and Alan Daniels
02/03/2002
OTTAWA -- A public inquiry should be struck to study serious security failings at the Port of Vancouver and other Canadian ports that are vulnerable to organized crime and international terrorism, a Senate committee said Friday.
Canada's ports are full of gang-affiliated dock workers with criminal records and they're frequently hired under the authority of unions rather than companies, says a unanimous report by Liberal and Progressive Conservative senators.
The report quotes the B.C. Organized Crime Unit as saying that the Port of Vancouver is infiltrated by motorcycle gangs, Asian triads, Russian gangsters and "narco-terrorists" who use the proceeds of drug sales to finance terrorism.
It also describes widespread threats and intimidation imposed by dockworkers dealing with customs officers at the Port of Vancouver.
"Containers have been known to be suspended over their vehicles during an inspection, to be 'accidentally' dropped close to inspectors - a brutal warning that their lives are at risk."
Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, chairman of the committee, said the committee was told by one police officer in Vancouver that the $4 million spent on security at the Port of Vancouver represents a "minute fraction" of one per cent of the billions of dollars in criminal profits made there.
The Senate's standing committee on national security and defence paid a visit to B.C. last November, touring Vancouver's port and speaking to local police, immigration authorities and customs officers.
Because criminal gangs have little trouble dominating ports and smuggling contraband in and out of Canada, it wouldn't be a significant leap to smuggle a small nuclear device, the committee report claims.
"The committee concluded that where organized crime flourishes, it does so because activities at any given port are beyond the control of the authorities in charge of the port," the report states.
"Clearly, this lack of control creates fertile ground for terrorist activity, including covert immigration, and potentially the covert importation and shipment of weapons and other agents of mass destruction."
Kenny said criminals could knowingly or unknowingly help terrorists kill thousands of civilians.
"We are all familiar with cars being [smuggled] into and out of ports," he told reporters at the National Press Theatre.
"Well, if you can move a car into and out of a port you can move a nuclear device, which is about a quarter of the size of this table, into and out of a port in the same container."
The report's conclusions include:
? An "extraordinarily high" percentage of port employees have criminal records, and that many of those ex-convicts chose to work at ports to engage in further criminal activity.
While no figures were available for the Port of Vancouver, the committee was told that a sampling of longshoremen in Halifax and Charlottetown revealed that 39 and 54 per cent, respectively, had criminal records.
? There is no system to squeeze out those with criminal records or ties to organized crime, and one of the problems is the clout unions have in hiring dock workers.
"Police expressed concern that unions continue to exercise excessive control over the functioning of ports," the report states. "This is exemplified by the traditional hiring-hall model, whereby employers request the number of employees they need and the union determines who gets selected and where they will work."
Kenny said the union problems are most pronounced in Montreal and less of a concern in Vancouver.
? Customs facilities are inadequate at some locations, "particularly the terminal for cruise ships in Vancouver."
In its look at the Port of Vancouver, the committee said Port Authority officials say they have no knowledge of organized crime at the port, even though customs officials say organized criminals are active, with the Hells Angels the "dominant criminal influence within the port."
While the Vancouver Port Authority screens its own employees, they represent only 121 of the 27,000 people employed on port property, the Senate committee said. Other companies aren't forced to provide security screening.
? Police believe that a large percentage of thefts at ports, including entire containers, aren't reported.
? There are "clear-cut" security lapses related to a lack of fencing, pass systems and background checks.
? Criminals "can make whole containers disappear, either arranging to have them smuggled directly out of the port or hidden for later pickup."
In addition to the call for the inquiry, the senators proposed additional security measures intended to ensure that Canadian ports aren't classified as security risks by American authorities.
"Any North American port not willing to invest in better security is destined to lose business within the new context of security concerns," the report concludes.
"Lax security at Canadian ports constitutes a threat to both the security and economic well-being of Canadians."
The report calls for a compulsory background screening of all employees and candidates for employment to determine if any are identified by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as a security risk.
It also proposed better x-ray equipment and other technology needed to examine containers, and calls for a review of fencing and entry-exit security systems at major ports.
The report says there is no clear division of police responsibility at the port because so many policing agencies are involved -- provincial and federal detachments of the RCMP, municipal police and private security companies.
"The police officers testified that policing crime in the port is complicated because of the number of stakeholders, but effective cooperation on the ground compensate for the fragmentation."
The most common crimes committed at ports in Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax involve drugs, people-smuggling, theft of cars, tobacco and alcohol and theft of entire containers and/or their contents.
The committee heard witnesses in Ottawa, Vancouver, Halifax, Montreal and Washington, D.C. as part of its study.
Unions and companies working at Vancouver's ports took issue with some of the committee's findings.
Tom De Fresne, Canadian area president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, said allegations of organized gangs infiltrating the Vancouver waterfront have previously been investigated and discounted by police.
"We think it's a big smoke screen," he said. "Our members have nothing to do with organized crime. They come to work and they do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay."
De Fresne said he was also baffled by the report's allegation that containers had been dropped near customs officers to intimidate them.
"I have never heard of that happening in 30 years on the waterfront," he said. "They [Customs] wouldn't stand for it."
British Columbia Maritime Employers Association president Frank Pasacreta said he doesn't think organized crime is a problem at Vancouver's port.
"That sort of activity, if it's occurring, has not been brought to my attention by the people I deal with on a regular basis, nor made to me by any of our companies," he said. "There may be things going on that we are unaware of but we are not having people taking pulp or lumber or other products off our docks or containers."
Norman Stark, president and chief executive officer of Terminal Systems Inc., disputed the committee's finding that whole containers can simply disappear from Canadian ports.
"That's virtually impossible," said Stark, a former president and CEO of the Vancouver Port Authority.
TSI operates Vanterm and Deltaport, which between them handle close to a million boxes a year.
Noting that the container handling is highly computerized, Stark said every box that arrives at the terminals is automatically tracked and every move it makes is subsequently recorded.
"The degree of sophistication amazes me," he added. "I have never seen a claim for a container that's simply disappeared or is missing. We do get claims for damages -- that's natural for any facility of this size -- but not for containers missing or stolen."
Graham Kee, head of security for the Vancouver Port Authority, said security in the port is better than it has ever been because of improved resources including surveillance and electronic identification technology.
He noted that Vancouver is the only port in Canada to invest in gamma-ray technology to scan containers for contraband or human cargo.
"Some of the projects we have been working on for the last couple of years are right in line with recommendations of the [senate] report," he said.
None of the three police agencies on the West Coast were able to provide comment on Friday's report. Canada Customs in Vancouver declined to comment on the report until it had a chance to review it.
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