Pubdate: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: Tristin Hopper PUTTING SMUGGLERS ON THE RUN AT PEARSON Every week brings a new crop of contraband items passing through the gates of Toronto's Pearson International Airport. "Last week we caught a guy hiding a snake under his shirt," said a superintendent with the airport branch of the Canada Border Services Agency. Rounding up smugglers is key to the Conservative government's plans for a "North American perimeter," so the feds are on a campaign to ramp up border security to U.S. levels and, in the words of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, "convince the Americans that our country is a safe country." On Tuesday morning, Mr. Toews, along with at least a dozen reporters, dropped by Pearson for a demonstration. The Post's Tristin Hopper went to watch: 10: 14 The demonstration starts with Scout the food-sniffer dog, a two-yearold beagle whose inherent cuteness is enhanced all the more by his tiny CBSA vest. Led by border services officer Ed Filman, Scout begins sniffing his way through a row of about 30 suitcases laid out on the airport floor. Five suitcases in, Scout sits down. Unzipping the bag in front of Scout, Mr. Filman pulls out an apple. Scout then pegs another suitcase containing a hunk of garlic sausage. So the dog can smell food. But Scout's real talent is selective sniffing - he is able to ignore non-restricted food items such as chocolate bars and potato chips, and zero in instead on meat, vegetables and potted plants. Being cute, it turns out, is also an important part of the job. "We want the dog to be able to come up to people in a calm, gentle way," a border official tells Mr. Toews. 10: 16 His suitcase inspection complete, Scout poses for photos next to a plastic table piled high with his take from last week: succulent Austrian prosciutto, mouth-watering bratwurst, high-end Japanese fish cakes and two large bonsai trees. They look harmless, says P.J. Joura, superintendent of the detector dog program, but all it takes is one contaminated sausage or houseplant to cause millions of dollars damage to the Canadian economy. 10: 20 Five "travellers" (really border service agents in civilian clothes) line up in single file in front of news cameras. Misha, a stout black Labrador, waddles onto the scene to find any hidden drugs. Glancing around nervously, the dog is led repeatedly around the passengers. Once. Twice. Three times. If this was real life, the smuggler would already be on his way to sell hits at the nearest playground. "She looks pretty distracted," says Mr. Toews. "She's new to the airport environment, so she's still a bit crowd shy and camera shy," explains a border agent. Hemmed in by longhaired news photographers, it is also possible that Misha is simply overcome by residual odours. 10: 24 On to the ion scanner, a magical machine that can find microscopic residues of everything from narcotics to explosives. Mr. Toews hands a border official a $20 bill and asks him to give it a quick test. A few minutes later, the machine beeps. "It's showing cocaine," says the officer. Virtually every $20 bill in Canada has at least one-or two-billionths of a gram of cocaine, and the Public Safety Minister's money is no exception. 10: 45 Epilogue. Before a row of TV cameras and microphones, Mr. Toews praises the work of Pearson's border officials and sniffer dogs. "If we want to continue to be a co-operating partner in international trade and tourism, we will need certain standards in place," he says. Of course, "there is absolutely no way that everybody can be checked," he says. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.