OTTAWA — Canada's border security system is trading safety for convenience, putting the burden on refugee claimants to voluntarily identify themselves as potential security threats, according to shocking testimony from the head of the country's Customs and Immigration Union.
Human Interaction Replaced by Automation
National president Mark Weber delivered a sobering assessment of Canada's refugee processing system during his appearance before the House Citizenship and Immigration committee this week. He revealed that chronic understaffing at border crossings has undermined the effectiveness of security measures, including proposed legislation like Bill C-12.
"We need to get our focus back on interdiction, it's been entirely about facilitation for far too long," Weber told committee members, highlighting the Canada Border Services Agency's increasing dependence on automated kiosks rather than human officers at ports of entry.
The union leader expressed grave concerns about current procedures, noting that "We seem to have a system where we're waiting for people who are here with ill intent to declare to us voluntarily that they are here for ill intent."
Staffing Crisis Forces Security Compromises
Weber emphasized that meaningful interactions between border officers and travelers or refugee claimants are essential for maintaining robust security. However, severe staffing shortages have dramatically reduced these critical face-to-face encounters.
"The technology we see the CBSA putting into place is all about self-declaration — it's about the traveller, the refugee claimant, doing everything on their own because we simply don't have the staff to do the proper interviews and do what we did previously," he explained.
The customs union president directly linked staffing gaps to security vulnerabilities, particularly criticizing the CBSA's streamlined 'One Touch' intake process for refugee claims. "Efficiencies as implemented by CBSA management almost always result in degradation of the security and integrity of our border processes," Weber warned.
Statistics Reveal Scale of the Challenge
Recent data underscores the magnitude of Canada's asylum processing challenge. Between January and September 2025, Canada processed 89,385 asylum claims at land, air and sea ports of entry. The majority of these claims originated from four countries:
- Haiti
- India
- Nigeria
- Iran
While Weber praised Budget 2025's commitment to hire 1,000 new CBSA officers, he revealed that actual staffing shortfalls exceed twice that number, creating critical gaps in Canada's front-line security.
"Interactions result in better intelligence and allow officers to recognize patterns and flags that would otherwise be missed, ensuring that any potential problem is detected early on, and will not put further stress on the system at a later date," Weber emphasized.
Recent Security Failures Highlight Concerns
Canada's immigration security screening has faced intense scrutiny following several high-profile cases. This summer's arrest of 62-year-old Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi and his son in a foiled alleged Toronto terror plot exposed alarming gaps in the system.
The elder Eldidi, an Egyptian national granted Canadian citizenship just one month before his arrest, had passed seven years of security checks that completely missed his alleged terrorist connections. This included his appearance in an ISIS torture video published two years before he arrived in Canada.
Additional concerns emerged last summer when Canada announced plans to welcome 5,000 Gazan refugees, offering financial support, work permits and free health care. U.S. senators raised alarms that this program could provide individuals with potential terrorist ties easy access to the United States.
These concerns gained context from polling released last month by a West Bank think tank, which showed overwhelming support for terror groups like Hamas among Palestinians, with 41% of those surveyed favoring "armed struggle" over negotiations in establishing a Palestinian state.
Weber's testimony paints a troubling picture of a border security system stretched beyond its capacity, relying on potentially dangerous individuals to self-identify as threats while human oversight diminishes due to staffing constraints.
