Law enforcement officials are highlighting three cases in which officers in Alberta and Manitoba intercepted people attempting to illegally enter Canada, saying they have the tools needed to respond to illegal activity at the border.
RCMP in Edmonton held a news conference on border security Wednesday, days after U.S. President Donald Trump paused plans to smack Canada with 25 per cent tariffs and start a North American trade war.
Advertisement 2
Article content
None of the recent cases addressed Trump’s apparent beef with Canada — the existence of small-scale fentanyl smuggling across the Canada-U.S. border, amounting to about 43 pounds in 2024.
RCMP assistant commissioner Lisa Moreland, however, said it is important to show the work Mounties do to patrol the border. Two of the incidents she discussed involved groups of people — including children — attempting to cross from the U.S. in frigid temperatures.
“We have seen, firsthand, heartbreaking situations, where the lives of adults and children have been lost in an attempt at crossing the border,” said Moreland, regional commander of the RCMP’s northwest federal policing unit.
“To anyone who is thinking about crossing the border, don’t,” she added. “You’re putting your life at risk, and you should not attempt it under any circumstances.”
Two of the incidents began near the Coutts border crossing in southern Alberta.
On Tuesday, an unidentified American man fled the port of entry after being stopped for secondary inspection by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The suspect fled an initial RCMP traffic stop, after which officers used a spike belt to disable his vehicle south of Milk River.
Headline News
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
The man — who appeared to be armed — then fled on foot. RCMP officers including a canine unit gave chase, but the man shot himself and died.
The case is now being investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), Moreland said.
“This event speaks to the dangers our officers and CBSA officers face at the border,” she said. “It also shows just how quickly we can respond to our border when events of this nature occur.”
Moreland also discussed a case in which CBSA and RCMP officers intercepted four adults and five children attempting to cross the border on foot near Coutts early Monday. The arrests came after a tip from border officials in the United States.
The crossers — laden with suitcases — were also spotted on RCMP cameras that line the border, Moreland said.
Another similar interception happened Jan. 14, when an RCMP plane with a thermal imaging scanner spotted six people attempting to cross the border near Emerson, Man., Moreland said. Mounties arrested the group and handed them over to CBSA.
The group was unequipped for the temperatures, which fell to -20 C to -30 C, not counting windchill,” Moreland said.
Advertisement 4
Article content
“They did not have hats, gloves, mitts, or anything we would normally see people wearing in a Canadian winter.”
RCMP were not able to immediately provide the nationalities of the people attempting the cross, though Moreland said the groups were made up of people from multiple countries.
None of the incidents disclosed Wednesday were related to fentanyl, but were intended to show “the RCMP, along with our partners at CBSA and provincial law enforcement, are doing our job to secure the border,” Moreland said.
Asked if she knew of any recent cases of cross-border fentanyl smuggling originating in the Prairie provinces, Moreland replied, “Not that I’m aware of.”
Trump paused tariff measures on Canada for 30 days on Monday after Canada agreed to deploy a prior $1.3-billion spending plan for border security. The U.S. president has repeatedly said he’d like to make Canada the “51st state” and that he would use “economic force” to do so.
Recommended from Editorial
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun
Article content
