Windsor

Canadian border officers have busy year nabbing drunk drivers, confiscating weapons

There were more than 3,000 seizures and 720 foreign nationals removed in 2016, according to annual numbers released from the Canada Border Services Agency.

Ontario border officers find missing children, rocket launchers and woolly mammoth tusk in 2016

Ottawa immigration lawyer Jackie Bonnisteel says refugees sneaking across the border into Canada will face legal hurdles in making their claims to stay. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Canadian border guards in southwestern Ontario confiscated thousands of dollars worth of illegal material being smuggled into Canada last year, including a rocket launcher and a woolly mammoth tusk.

There were more than 3,000 seizures and 720 foreign nationals removed in 2016, according to annual numbers released from the Canada Border Services Agency. 

This rocket launcher was one of the many weapons confiscated at the Canada-U.S. border in 2016. (Canada Border Services Agency)

Of the foreign nationals removed, more than 350 were arrested for attempting to enter or live in Canada illegally. 

Border officers processed 25 million travellers entering Canada in: 

  • 10.5 million cars 
  • 52,000 buses 
  • 3.3 million commercial trucks 
  • 3,100 aircraft 
  • 26,000 boats 
  • 6,000 trains

Officers inspected 173,000 vehicles, processing 736,000 travellers through closer examinations. The agency also nabbed 70 impaired drivers, arrested nine persons for breaching court-imposed conditions and recovered three missing children