The first container hasn’t even arrived at Fairview and already they’re talking crime and security
A Senate Committee into the state of Canada’s ports is calling for a more proactive approach to security on the waterfronts of the nations cities. The Senate security and Defence Committee found some critical flaws in the nation’s port safety and security measures.
The Senators pointed to problems with organized crime on the waterfront and the potential for terrorists to take advantage of soft spots in the nation’s security net.
The Daily News featured the Senator’s concerns as their front page story in Monday’s paper.
DO NOT ALLOW PORTS TO BE THE NEXT 9/11, SAY SENATORS
Committee urges better security at nation’s container handling facilities
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Monday, March 26, 2007
Pages one and three
A Senate committee says Canada’s ports need tougher screening for containers moving through the country in order to prevent terrorists from using them as a way to get weapons into the country.
On Thursday, the Senate security and defence committee criticized the government for failing to address holes in the port safety net and the failure to scrutinize the four million containers that arrive annually by sea, almost one-third of them en route to the United States.
“Crime has always been connected to the waterfront in most countries – to the point that so long as all parties are making good money at our ports, crime is all too often shrugged off as the cost of doing business,” said the committee.
“It is no secret Canada’s ports are riddled with organized crime and nobody seems to be doing much about it. The problem with widespread criminality, of course, is that it requires holes in the security system to be successful. And any holes that a criminal can take advantage of, a terrorist can take advantage of.
The committee outlines in the report how advances are being made in some foreign ports in developing comprehensive systems for scanning containers.
Hutchison Port Holdings, the world’s largest handler of containers has a new system in Hong Kong that is 99 per cent secure. The company has developed system that scans containers moving onto ships at a rate of 16 kilometres an hour. And this scanning adds only one per cent to shipping costs/
Yet Canada’s system is “hit or miss” they said.
They note the Canadian Border Services Agency has just 15 Vehicle and Cargo Inspection Systems (VACIS) to deal with 4.1 million containers entering the country each year.
The machines use non-invasion imaging technology- using gamma rays – to look inside containers.
“The committee has learned that even the United States cannot VACIS 100 per cent of incoming cargo, even though the average American border port has three times the number of staff that a Canadian one does.”
In addition, the committee learned that on any given ship there can be up to a half-dozen undeclared containers or ghost cans, no one knows where they came from or what is inside and half the time they are not empty.
It is the committee’s belief that would be terrorist often succeed through the use of the element of surprise, as they did on Sept. 11, 2001. That means alternatives will be sought to wreaking havoc in the air,” they said.
“Shipping containers offer an obvious alternative to bringing terror to the North America target.
Yet no comprehensive system has as of yet have been proposed for Canada.
“It should be.”
A Senate Committee into the state of Canada’s ports is calling for a more proactive approach to security on the waterfronts of the nations cities. The Senate security and Defence Committee found some critical flaws in the nation’s port safety and security measures.
The Senators pointed to problems with organized crime on the waterfront and the potential for terrorists to take advantage of soft spots in the nation’s security net.
The Daily News featured the Senator’s concerns as their front page story in Monday’s paper.
DO NOT ALLOW PORTS TO BE THE NEXT 9/11, SAY SENATORS
Committee urges better security at nation’s container handling facilities
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Monday, March 26, 2007
Pages one and three
A Senate committee says Canada’s ports need tougher screening for containers moving through the country in order to prevent terrorists from using them as a way to get weapons into the country.
On Thursday, the Senate security and defence committee criticized the government for failing to address holes in the port safety net and the failure to scrutinize the four million containers that arrive annually by sea, almost one-third of them en route to the United States.
“Crime has always been connected to the waterfront in most countries – to the point that so long as all parties are making good money at our ports, crime is all too often shrugged off as the cost of doing business,” said the committee.
“It is no secret Canada’s ports are riddled with organized crime and nobody seems to be doing much about it. The problem with widespread criminality, of course, is that it requires holes in the security system to be successful. And any holes that a criminal can take advantage of, a terrorist can take advantage of.
The committee outlines in the report how advances are being made in some foreign ports in developing comprehensive systems for scanning containers.
Hutchison Port Holdings, the world’s largest handler of containers has a new system in Hong Kong that is 99 per cent secure. The company has developed system that scans containers moving onto ships at a rate of 16 kilometres an hour. And this scanning adds only one per cent to shipping costs/
Yet Canada’s system is “hit or miss” they said.
They note the Canadian Border Services Agency has just 15 Vehicle and Cargo Inspection Systems (VACIS) to deal with 4.1 million containers entering the country each year.
The machines use non-invasion imaging technology- using gamma rays – to look inside containers.
“The committee has learned that even the United States cannot VACIS 100 per cent of incoming cargo, even though the average American border port has three times the number of staff that a Canadian one does.”
In addition, the committee learned that on any given ship there can be up to a half-dozen undeclared containers or ghost cans, no one knows where they came from or what is inside and half the time they are not empty.
It is the committee’s belief that would be terrorist often succeed through the use of the element of surprise, as they did on Sept. 11, 2001. That means alternatives will be sought to wreaking havoc in the air,” they said.
“Shipping containers offer an obvious alternative to bringing terror to the North America target.
Yet no comprehensive system has as of yet have been proposed for Canada.
“It should be.”
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