Posted April 6, 2005 

The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)
April 6, 2005 Wednesday
By: Derrick Penner

Marine industry employers and unions consider the proposed background checks invasive and onerous, and backlogs in processing thousands of highly detailed applications for security clearance could interfere with their ability to staff port facilities in order to meet demand.

Onkar Athwal, vice-president of operations for the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, said his group, and unions that represent longshoremen and other workers, are pressing Transport Canada to meet to discuss alternatives to what Ottawa is imposing.

"Ideally, we'd like to sit down with the government and find a solution that meets their needs and at the same time protects the needs of workers," he added.

Athwal said his organization and union officials are scheduled to attend a Transport Canada briefing on the new rules.

"I think it's just an information session, I don't think it's a session where we're looking for a solution," he added.

The background checks that marine employers and unions oppose will screen employees with a criminal records check, scan of the police arrest record database, credit checks, an accounting of international travel, and background review by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Employees would also have to provide information on the activities of family members.

Athwal said they are not opposed to background checks, but his members and the unions say screening should be graduated, starting with the criminal records check.

If evidence of an employee's wrongdoing shows up there, then proceed to a credit check and review by CSIS.

The marine employers group also wants Ottawa to increase police presence at ports to monitor suspicious activity, rather than spending resources screening all employees.

"This doing extensive background checks is not the solution everybody thinks it may be," Athwal said.

Tom Dufresne, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union of Canada, said in a news release that his members have a vested interest in making sure ports are secure "because our livelihoods depend on it."

Ottawa wants to spend $21 million to screen 10,000 workers to weed out potential troublemakers, people who may have criminal records, association with criminal gangs, a history of gambling or travel to questionable places within the past five years.

Transport Canada spokesman Rod Nelson said the department is still in the process of reviewing feedback from stakeholders, including the marine industry employers groups and unions.

He added that Transport Canada wants to have revised regulations published in the Canada Gazette by June.

In previous interviews, Transport Minister Jean Lapierre has said he is willing to work with groups to make sure the process complies with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but would not bow to intimidation to relax the checks.

Lapierre has said honest workers at the ports, which have been called havens for organized crime by police and a Senate committee, would be the first to suffer if there was a major terrorist incident or security breach.

However, Athwal said the security checks, which are over and above those required by nations that have signed the International Ship and Port Facility Security code, would also put Canada at a competitive disadvantage.

"Say in 2007, we need 400 people at the cruise ship terminal on a particular day. If we haven't got 400 people with the security clearance, who's going to do the work?"