Word Is Getting Out, Finally

We ought to be thankful for Gord Henderson's Saturday column. It is finally identifying to the public the obvious security problems that we are having at the border.

There was the required slam on the Ambassador Bridge of course: "Kenny, who has stressed repeatedly that Windsor's Ambassador Bridge is one of Canada's most inviting targets." There was no direct mention that a major concern to US Customs is the City owned Detroit-Windsor Tunnel which poses a "unique" security risk. That is to be expected since this information has not been widely circulated it appears.

Then there was the real breakthrough in Gord's column although not mentioned by name:

"Five years after the World Trade Center, we're still drifting. A Windsor Star news team bound for Metro Airport Thursday morning got stuck in the Detroit-Windsor tunnel behind a large truck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. No trunks had been opened and inspected. No vehicles had been given even a cursory screening."

What he means is that there is NO REVERSE CUSTOMS, something that the Bridge Co. has been advocating for many years.

The fatalistic last line is absurd, as if we cannot do anything. "But it's only a matter of time before we receive the ultimate wake-up call."

We will if we continue to sit on our rear-ends and not demand what air travellers have had for years at certain airports. With VACIS, trains will have it too in Windsor. The Governments of Canada and the United States must implement REVERSE CUSTOMS at the Bridge and Tunnel. As well, what we should be demanding now is for Transport Canada and the City of Windsor/Windsor Tunnel Commission/DCTC to do their job at the Tunnel immediately to take drastic action to reduce as far as posssible the risk there.

Transport Canada's failure to act is disgraceful given their platitudes about the need for Bill C-3. One cannot help wonder if "safety and security" was a phony reason for the Act after all.

When you read my BLOG on REVERSE CUSTOMS, you will understand something that, again, should have been obvious to me about REVERSE CUSTOMS and the Tunnel but was not until recently. It's that inherent conflict that Windsor mayors have as Mayor of Windsor and Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission.