Canada’s border-security agency will soon require all border-security officers working with detained migrants to wear defensive gear that includes batons, pepper spray and bulletproof vests — a policy that is drawing concern over a perceived “criminalization” of asylum seekers.
“Ensuring that IEOs wear their defensive equipment will enable officers to protect/defend themselves and others if necessary in the IHC.” A group of doctors, lawyers, legal scholars and human rights organizations wrote two letters last year to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale urging him to cancel the policy — calls they say have been ignored.
Anthony Navaneelan, a layer with Legal Aid Ontario who also works with the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, said it’s not every day the border-security union and migrant-advocacy groups agree. “The idea of getting them out of jails is to recognize the fact that it can re-traumatize refugee claimants to be putting them in detention to begin with when they’ve committed no crime,” Navaneelan said.
As for the concerns raised by the lawyers, doctors, human-rights groups and the officers’ union, CBSA “ensured that there is a balance reflected between the safety and security of officers and other detainees,” Purdy added.
How dare they be properly equipped
It can't hurt to be prepared. I'd rather them be able to defend themselves. Things aren't nearly as worrysum as America's southern border situation. But things will likely get worse before improving. Our s are low but they still increased by a lot compared to previous years
School officers are armed.🤔