The Information Co-ops were invited to follow two RCMP officers one afternoon in mid-December. A very rare incursion into their work by federal police officers at the border.
The corporal gets out of his vehicle to question the driver. “I’m from the region, I go for walks,” she replies simply.
“It’s a vague, very classic response,” explains Corporal Rouleau, head of an RCMP team assigned to surveillance of the border in Estrie.
On board the vehicle, the three other passengers fled the gaze of the uniformed police officer. The corporal checks the identity of the occupants, all from the region. The driver has a history of drug trafficking.
Corporal Kevin Rouleau and Corporal Martina Pillarova will question the passengers of a vehicle whose occupants simply said they were walking, not far from the American border. (Maxime Picard/La Tribune)
The police officer has doubts about their intentions: will they make a delivery or receive one? Does one of the passengers intend to cross the border on foot? But this is not enough to justify going further in its verifications.
The Customs Act grants certain powers to police officers who work to protect borders. But they remain limited. “To be able to carry out a search, we would have had to see suitcases, passports or other objects that would suggest a possible offense,” says Corporal Rouleau, who has no other choice but to let them go.
The Coops de l’information team attempted to cross the border on foot, through the woods, in the company of two police officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. ((Journalist: Marie-Christine Bouchard | Videographer: Maxime Picard | Production and editing: Mòrag Bélisle))
The police sometimes feel that they have little power to act once they have intercepted citizens on Canadian soil. “We work with the laws we have. But sometimes, they don’t help us,” says Corporal Rouleau.
He gives another example. “Once, we were called by border services agents who saw a person who wanted to enter illegally, right next to the border crossing. The person was right there in front of the officers. But they had no right to intervene.”
Border services officers can only carry out their duties at the country’s official points of entry, such as this customs office on Highway 55 in Stanstead. (Maxime Picard/La Tribune)
Border security is in fact a mandate shared between the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency. However, customs officers can only act at designated border crossings. Not outside.
“We were 30 minutes away, we had to come urgently. What do you want, it’s the law,” the policeman continues, shrugging his shoulders.
Find the smugglers’ paths
On the ground, police officers know the routes used by smugglers. And are always on the lookout to discover new ones. But smuggling networks continue to invent new methods to thwart law enforcement. “In certain areas, we don’t even have access to telephone or Internet lines, the terrain is so uneven,” says Corporal Rouleau.
During the patrol, the policeman points out a house next to which cars used to drive through at full speed. “There were so many crossings that an RCMP patrol was almost always on the street! The Americans ended up putting a fence on the land,” explains the police officer.
Corporal Martina Pillarova and Corporal Kevin Rouleau follow in the footsteps of a person who crossed the border… on cross-country skis. (Maxime Picard/La Tribune)
In other places, smugglers actually try to drive across fields or private land. “They end up getting bogged down, abandon their vehicle and do the rest on foot,” he adds.
A little later, the policeman brings us next to a Canadian house whose backyard is demarcated by the border. We can see footprints in the snow, both in the Canadian direction and in the opposite direction.
Different footprints are visible in the snow, one towards the United States, the other towards Canada. (Maxime Picard/La Tribune)
On the same night, two people crossed private territory, one to reach the United States, the other to Canada.
“This is proof that it is difficult to predict where and how people will move,” adds Corporal Rouleau.
A painful crossing
The majority of migrants who attempt to cross from one country to another do so with the help of smuggling networks. These well-organized criminal groups will drop off their clients on one side of the border, in the evening or at night. They provide them with directions to cross the woods or fields alone, by walking. Then accomplices pick up the customers on the other side.
The border between Quebec and the United States is largely in rural areas, particularly in Estrie, where we patrolled with the RCMP, as well as in Beauce. “With the geography of the region, we have a complex reality,” maintains the police officer.
In Estrie, it is mainly criminals who seek to cross the border to make deliveries or receive illegal goods, such as narcotics.
“The more difficult the road, the more the client pays, because it is considered safer so as not to get caught,” explains Corporal Kevin Rouleau.
We also tried the experiment of going to the border via a path frequently used by smugglers. After parking on the side of the road, we walked away on an icy path in the forest.
On this route often used by migrants, it is quite easy to get lost, especially when people travel in the evening or at night. (Maxime Picard/La Tribune)
“People are told by smugglers: ‘You cross a field, you cross a wood, you cross a field, then you arrive.’ The reality is something else. There are rivers to cross, there are bridges, there are culverts, there are trees, there is a forest, there are animals… In winter, at night, we cannot see not necessarily the path,” explains the police officer.
Every year, police officers make numerous interventions in forests and fields where people have become lost or injured.
In recent years, at least three migrants have died trying to cross the border. A woman was also found dead in the woods, about twenty kilometers from where we are.
What do the police need?
Earlier this week, the Trudeau government promised to invest $1.3 billion over six years to strengthen border security. There is talk of more cameras, drones and helicopters. What does the RCMP need in Estrie to do its job better?
Corporal Rouleau speaks simply of “technologies” in order to avoid providing details to the smugglers on the strategies that will be employed.
The RCMP also has the mandate to monitor Lake Memphremagog, which touches both countries, and which is also used as a place of illegal passage, both in summer (by boat) and in winter (on foot). (Maxime Picard/La Tribune)
“Right now we have the technology we need, where we need it. We know that equipment has been purchased, that it is in a warehouse and that we will be able to quickly receive the equipment we need, when we need it,” he replies cautiously.
If there is an influx of migrants in the coming months, after Donald Trump comes to power, police officers from across the country have already been targeted to lend a hand at the border. But beyond new technologies, citizens are the most valuable collaborators of police officers on the ground.
“Citizens from border towns give us information,” adds the police officer. They are eyes on the ground. The RCMP is a police force which is also community-based, which is close to the people. We are here to do our duty, and to protect human life.”
