Cornwall ON – Today marks the one year anniversary of the Seaway International Bridge Crisis. On May 31st, at approximately 11:PM Canada Border & Security Agents left their posts at the behest of the Harper Government leading to a 42 day bridge closure.
Fast forward to today, the 1st Anniversary and there is the temporary customs base at the foot of Brookdale avenue in Cornwall Ontario. There still are no CBSA Guns on the island.
Residents of the Akwesasne still have to report to the temporary station when entering Canada via the US and the Harper Government has yet to actually negotiate a resolution insisting on CBSA officials discussing issues with the MCA (Mohawk Council of Akwesasne)
The tent on the lot next to the old CBSA station now has a building on it as well as a tent.
There’s been one change of Grand Chief, to Mike Mitchell, and Minister Peter Van Loan has been replaced by Vic Toews.
While Liberal and NDP critics have visited the bridge, our MP, Guy Lauzon, as well as either minister or Mr. Harper himself, have not officially visited or reviewed the site.
A Federal election however is coming up and I doubt Mr. Harper will let Mr. Lauzon, his head of caucus, swing in the wind. Then again his last head of caucus was Rahim Jaffer and we also saw his loyalty to Helena Guergis so weirder things have happened….
Illegal cigarette sales, while impacted initially have stabilized with a bag of cigarettes retailing for about $20 in the area with no shortage of supply. Area businesses have been hit hard by the year long bridge closure as well.
So what if anything has been accomplished? There’s also another underlying storm in that CBSA union officials essentially want CBSA guards to be paid equivalent to police officers if they’re armed. Something the government isn’t that excited about.
So area residents what do you think of this year long mess? You can post your comments below.
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The POE is no longer referred to as “temporary”, they are now calling it “interim”. Potato, potato. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.
Closing down the POE is by far the best option.
1) It keeps ‘foreigners’ from crossing native land.
2) It saves taxpayers from having to build a new bridge
3) We don’t have to force the border guards to work in an unsafe environment.
Why some people want to force this unhappy marriage on everybody just totally amazes me.
Closing the POE is apparently one of the four options being looked at so hopefully sanity wins in this case.
CBSA members are not policemen and if they dont want a sidearm then dont force them to carry one, its for theyre own protection but if they dont want it so be it.
The problem with the firearm issue is that the last time the US said a dangerous criminal was heading for Canada, the CBSA walked off the job. Are we that “milquetoast”?
I think that there should be a new bridge build just downstream from the power dam bypassing Cornwall island and remove the current bridges.