So an obviously faulty risk assessment by intelligence agencies is turned into an important public relations exercise, so important that Day took the time to travel to Halifax to report on it. No doubt putting Arar on a watch list and asking Syrian intelligence to ask him questions was an important exercise in the war on terror as well even though it also showed that intelligence gatherers jump to conclusions on the flimsiest of evidence. This time it only caused a delay and no doubt some irritation for the ship's crew and an expensive search at taxpayer expense. I hope Day flew economy.
Search of Italian cargo ship turns up no stowaways
Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007
A massive search of a transatlantic container ship turned up no stowaways at the Halifax port, but Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says the large scale operation was still worth the effort.
Canadian security agencies had suspected that the Italian-owned ship, the Cala Puebla, carried stowaways and as it approached the Canadian coast Tuesday morning from Portugal, police boats and border agents escorted it to shore.
Over the course of the day and evening Tuesday, officials questioned the crew and searched more than 100 containers using high-tech equipment and procedures.
According to reports, they were looking for upwards of 100 people hiding on board, but Mr. Day said for security reasons he could not confirm the exact number.
“The search in and of itself did not turn up anything in terms of people or contraband, however, it was a very positive exercise for all of our agencies to be engaged in at one time,” Mr. Day said at a media briefing on Wednesday morning.
The Canadian Border Services Agency, the RCMP, and local police were involved in the operation and other agencies were prepared to process and then house any stowaways that may have been discovered, Mr. Day said.
For security reasons, the minister said he could not provide details on why this particular ship was a concern but said it was determined through a risk assessment that the vessel posed a high enough risk to warrant the search.
Mr. Day said the ship carried about 700 containers, but only the ones destined for Canada were examined, about 180 of them. It would have taken too long to search all of the containers aboard the ship, he said.
“To ignore risks or not move on risks would be of course negligent and when a certain vessel reaches a certain level of risk assessment then the degree of search that you saw yesterday moves into place,” he said.
He spoke generally of the information considered in assembling a risk assessment of a ship coming to a Canadian port. It includes the ship’s manifest, the background of the crew and captain, where the ship has previously docked, and “other intelligence.”
“This is one of the cases where the vessel in question reached that risk assessment level, as has happened before in this region,” Mr. Day said. “It’s not totally uncommon to see that happen and you will continue to see that happen in the future.”
Even though it is routine for ships to be searched, according to Mr. Day, he traveled to Halifax to witness it for himself. He said he was grateful for the opportunity to see such a co-ordinated effort being carried out and he congratulated everyone involved.
Despite nothing illegal being found aboard the ship, Mr. Day also said it was an important public relations exercise.
“We continue to send the message that we have a high level of protection for our borders and for Canadians and that anybody trying to abuse their capabilities in terms of smuggling — we know that human smuggling has been a problem and is on the rise, we know that human trafficking is on the rise — we’re sending out a very strong message that we are on the alert for this, that Canada’s laws will not be abused and that we have the protective capabilities to make sure that our country remains safe and secure,” said Mr. Day.
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