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Ontario border guards walk off job after scare
Well, well, well.
I have nothing to add!
just read it and forget it, otherwise you wont be able to fall asleep tonight. it is scary! no kidding!
| quote: | Customs officers in Ontario walked off the job Wednesday, saying they were not equipped to deal with an "armed and dangerous" fugitive believed to be heading for the border.
The walkout caused huge backlogs at the Niagara Falls, Ont., border crossing after customs agents began exercising their right to refuse to work if they feel their lives are threatened.
Within hours, all of the full-time customs agents and most of the students working at the Fort Erie crossing had left their posts.
By mid-evening Wednesday, all full-time agents at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and the bridge in Queenston, Ont., had walked off the job.
A Canadian Border Service Agency spokeswoman for the area confirmed the walkout and said travellers should avoid those crossings if possible until the dispute is resolved.
The spokeswoman told CTV.ca that she couldn't confirm how long the walkout might last, but that border delays Thursday were "minimal."
Ron Moran, national president of the Customs and Excise Union that represents the agents, told The Globe and Mail that guards in Fort Erie were issued a photo of a criminal who escaped from custody in Winchester, Ky., and told to let him through.
The idea, as he understood it, was to allow the man to walk into the waiting arms of the police.
However, a Niagara Regional Police official said he had no knowledge of such instructions, but confirmed that cellphone tracking had suggested the man might be heading for the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and was thought to be driving a van and in the company of a woman.
"The person is to be considered armed and dangerous," Inspector Bob Ciupa of the Niagara Regional Police told The Globe last night.
Agents began walking off the job Wednesday afternoon when armed police were deployed at the border in Ontario. Witnesses said shotgun-wielding officers were stationed at the Niagara Falls crossing and tactical officers appeared at the Fort Erie crossing.
At the Fort Erie crossing Wednesday night, managers kept two booths operating, but that was not enough to handle the line of vehicles that stretched the length of the Peace Bridge and into the United States. The situation was less chaotic at the other two crossings.
This is the fourth such border closing over the issue of unarmed guards.
The union said yesterday's incident shows yet again why customs agents need firearms to do their jobs properly.
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)...It's a bit better at the airports though 
