The Canada Border Services Agency regularly performed "blitzes" to target perceived problems with certain cross-border travellers, a local Canadian Human Rights Tribunal heard Monday.
Helene Oakes, an employee with the border agency from 1993 to 2008, said that the agency would attempt to target vehicles for illegal activities such as money laundering or drugs, at times even cracking down on Asian tour buses destined for the nearby casino.
But on Nov. 18, 2005, Oakes said "black SUVs from the reserve" was the customs blitz of choice.
While the CBSA's lawyer has not yet had the chance to respond to Oakes' allegations, the November blitz description matches the vehicle belonging to Fallan Davis, who claims she was the target of racial profiling by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that morning in 2005 at the former Canadian customs facility on Cornwall Island.
Davis, who was only a few weeks pregant at the time, claims that without justification the CBSA used an imaging device to scan her vehicle. She says the scan's radiation led her to abort her unborn child.
Oakes - married to a native man who has sworn in some aborginal witnesses at the tribunal - said she complained to CBSA management about targeted blitzes on Akwesasne residents.
"I left in disgust. I wanted to get out of there," Oakes said of her actions following the search and scan of Davis' vehicle.
Before she left, Oakes said she consoled Davis, who was visibly shaken.
Oakes said she's worked in several capacities for CBSA, including administration, recruitment, and as a border agent.
No documented evidence of any blitz has yet to be presented to the tribunal.
Kakwerais, a community elder representing Davis at the tribunal, questioned Oakes about the existence of a visual recording that would have captured Davis' encounter with other CBSA agents.
"It was taped," Oakes told the tribunal, noting several cameras monitor the facility 24-7.
It is unclear whether any video evidence of the incident will be introduced at the tribunal, but minutes before the tribunal adjourned for the day, Davis attempted to make reference to an internal CBSA document that indicates a visual recording exists.
TRAINING DAY
Oakes also testified that if she and other border agents had received proper training about the ins and outs of dealing with Akwesasne residents, it would have alleviated tension between the groups, and that the Davis incident "would not have happened."
Oakes said the only diversity training she did receive involved the use of coloured jelly beans, which she said was not even close to addressing the complexity of the dynamics between the two groups.
"'How do you think the red jelly beans feel towards the white jelly beans?'" Oakes recalled from the training session, noting she was "not impressed."
"They just want to give you a little booklet," Oakes later added. "Here's an Indian, here's a white person. Get along."
Following the Davis incident, Oakes said the CBSA pursued further cultural sensitivity training, but it too was flawed. She said the New Brunswick historian hired for the educational seminar had no intimate knowledge of Akwesasne, and that, worse, he had made several errors in his proposed presentation for CBSA agents.
Oakes had obtained a copy of the historian's agenda and leaked it to members of Akwesasne, who critiqued it and returned it to CBSA.
Oakes said she was suspended for leaking the document.
UNKNOWN AUTHOR
Early Monday, CBSA lawyer Sean Gaudet concluded his cross-examination of John Boots, an Akwesasne elder who witnessed some of the interaction between Davis and the CBSA on the day in question.
Gaudet attempted to show inconsistencies between Boots' written statements and his testimony at the tribunal . The CBSA lawyer suggested that portions of the written statements weren't true.
Boots had signed several pages of documents as a written statement, but had only handwritten the last two pages himself. He could not identify who, or why, someone had handwritten the earlier portions of his statement, which at times contradicted his own oral testimony.
"Why didn't you write the whole thing yourself instead of just the last two pages?" Gaudet asked.
"I don't know," Boots answered, adding that his memory of the 2005 incident is unclear.
The tribunal resumes Tuesday.