The opposition accused Toews of agreeing to participate in an “offensive PR (public relations) stunt” when he approved a 2011 Canada Border Services Agency’s proposal to co-operate in making Border Security: Canada’s Front Line.
The proposal submitted to Toews said the CBSA would benefit through higher “profile,” boost employee morale and increase public awareness of Canada’s border laws.
But the 2011 memo and attached agreement between the CBSA and Force Four Productions also spelled out the operational costs to taxpayers in terms of the role government officials would play.
The CBSA would “enjoy de facto executive production” authority, identify “scenarios, sites and storylines,” as well as oversee and control all film shoots.
“This (financial) burden is not insignificant,” CBSA president Luc Portelance said in the proposal that was released through the Access to Information Act.
The memo also noted that the Force Four Entertainment pitch to the CBSA was reviewed by an official in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office before getting final approval from Toews.
The opposition tore into the government Monday.
“Our border services officers do important and dangerous work. Reducing this to mere entertainment is unacceptable,” New Democratic Party MP Rosane Dore Lefebvre said during question period.
“How much is this costing the border services agency for this spectacle?”
Toews stood up to read out, for the second of three times during question period, the same answer.
“Mr. Speaker, the show is about the situation faced daily by our front-line border officers,” he began, before adding that privacy rights are being respected and that the CBSA plays an important role in cracking down on illegal immigrants.
B.C. New Democrat Randall Garrison, who called CBSA co-operation an “offensive PR stunt,” said the opposition will continue to press Toews to spell out the costs when he appears before a parliamentary committee here Thursday.
The Liberals also went after the government, with MP Kevin Lamoureux saying the Harper government is “using government resources in order to promote the Conservatives’ right-wing, anti-immigrant agenda.”
The CBSA, he said during question period, has been turned into a film production agency for the reality TV show.
Both opposition parties say the CBSA, seen filming a bust in Vancouver last week involving several undocumented migrants, should withdraw from the show.
They argue that migrants likely feel pressure to sign waivers allowing their images to appear on the TV show, and are being subjected to humiliation in order to promote the Conservatives’ law-and-order agenda.
Border Security, which premiered in September, is being produced for Shaw Media’s National Geographic channel.
An online petition organized by the spouse of one of the men detained in last week’s bust, meanwhile, reached more than 9,000 names by midday Monday.
The petition on change.org calls on Force Four Entertainment to cancel the show and asks the Harper government to pull the plug on CBSA co-operation.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Peter O'Neil
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