This was just funny for some reason.

Man caught after shootout at U.S.-Canada border held on $2-million US bail     BLAINE, Wash. (AP) - A Mexican man sought in a California homicide was ordered held on $2 million bail Wednesday, while a Pakistani man was released hospital and booked into jail following a car chase that ended in gunfire and forced the closing of a major U.S.-Canada border crossing for more than 10 hours. Authorities arrested Jose Antonio Barajas, 22, of Mexico, and Ishtiaq Hussain, 38, of Pakistan, on Tuesday after they allegedly sped away from a Whatcom County, Wash., sheriff's deputy at 160 kilometres an hour, drove through a spike strip designed to flatten their tires, failed to stop at a border checkpoint and tore through Peace Arch Park. About 20 unarmed Canadian border guards fled for safety, an official of the union representing the guards said Wednesday. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent fired his gun, hitting Hussain, and a sheriff's deputy blocked the fleeing vehicle with his squad car. The Peace Arch border crossing was closed for more than 10 hours Tuesday, although traffic was diverted to another nearby crossing. Barajas and Hussain had been sought in the Saturday shooting death of Ashok Malhotra, 43, in a San Francisco-area apartment and police believed they might try to flee the country. The chase began Tuesday afternoon after sheriff's deputies spotted a car matching the description on Interstate 5 in Custer, Wash., about 10 kilometres south of the border. A Whatcom County Superior Court judge set Barajas' bail at $1 million for a fugitive warrant from California and another $1 million for investigation of two counts of first-degree assault and one count of eluding law enforcement. Hussain's bail was to be set later.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/01/25/1411718-ap.html

Unarmed… speeding car… I would flee as well but then again I would not do the job unarmed to begin with.

figures

They must have been French Canadians.

those damn mounties.

Quoted: They must have been French Canadians.

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060125/border_patrols_060125/20060125?hub=CTVNewsAt11

Tories to fulfill promise to arm border guards

Updated Wed. Jan. 25 2006 11:31 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Conservative justice critic Vic Toews announced Wednesday that Canadian border guards will be armed as soon as possible.

The move will make good on a Tory campaign promise to beef up border security and respond to border guards' long standing plea for arms.

"It's simply a practical matter of how soon these officers can be trained and the firearms issued to them," Toews said.

"That's our commitment and I trust our (justice) minister will do exactly that."

Prime minister-designate Stephen Harper has not yet appointed his cabinet.

Toews quick announcement, made just two days after the party was elected into office, may have been speeded up by an incident Tuesday when two murder suspects in the U.S. made a run for the Canadian border.

The fugitives were stopped by a police shootout mere metres before the Canadian border. One of the suspects, Ishtiak Hussain, was shot in the neck and remains in hospital. He has not yet been charged.

The driver, Jose Barajas, was charged with eluding a police vehicle, and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly attempting to run down two guards, said Mac Setter, the U.S. prosecutor.

The suspects did not fire back at police.

Courts in Richmond, California have issued warrants for both men on murder charges in the death of a taxi driver last Saturday.

Prosecutors are now deciding whether the suspects should face charges in Washington, or California.

Canadian guards at the Peace Arch border crossing, and at three others crossings, walked off the job in fear of their own safety when they heard the suspects were headed their way.

They were unapologetic and warned it could happen again.

"If you're being told someone is armed and coming up to the border crossing the most we have as protection is body armour, bullet proof vests, etc, we have batons we have pepper spray, but someone comes up with semi automatic rifle… were not prepared to deal with that," George Scott, a spokesman for the border guards' union told CTV Vancouver.

Guards who feel their lives are in danger have the legal right to refuse to work, according to a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency.

The border was closed for about seven hours as the result of the shootout and ensuing investigation.

B.C.'s Solicitor General John Les called on the new federal government to provide arms and training to border guards, following the incident.

"I think they need to be armed," Les said, according to CP. "We sometimes have some not very nice people who want to try and get into our country."

Toews pledged that guards will be armed just as soon as they can be properly trained and equipped with the firearms.

He said he was disturbed that the guards abandoned their posts, but said he understands if they felt their lives were in danger.

The fleeing suspects, considered dangerous by police, had tried to outrun officers in a high-speed chase down Interstate 5 in Washington state. The pursuit reached speeds of 160 km/hr.

The Conservatives were elected on a platform that pledged to bolster border security to stop the flow of illegal guns being smuggled in from the U.S.

In addition to his promise to arm border guards, Harper said he would also restore port police service which has been disbanded by the Liberal government. Port security is now handled by local law enforcement officials.

Canada's border services union threatened to strike in 2005 in an effort to force the government to provide them with guns in order to protect themselves.

Currently, the RCMP is called on to deal with perceived threats.

Sounds like it would be easy for us to invade using a troop of motivated Boy Scouts.

"Go back from wence thou came"

Sadly this isn't the first time they've felt the need to abandon their posts...
'Couple years ago US cops in NY chased a guy into Canada at Niagara Falls... maybe Fort Erie?
The BG ened up running over and killing a woman in Canada.... Just before being aprehended.
In this case the US coppers also ran the border....
Of course if I was a bad guy running from the cops I'd head for Canada too....

I think our border staff are simply there to collect taxes anyway... When I go to the US I get questioned as to citizenship, purpose, guns on board (which is usually a "yes" since I shoot in the states)... I always have to show some kind of ID...all very security related... Oh and if I have any citrus fruit

All the Canadians want to know is if I bought anything they can tax me on.

Quoted: Unarmed… speeding car… I would flee as well but then again I would not do the job unarmed to begin with.

they are nto allowed to be armed... the "old" governemnt sid that was an "American" ideal, of course now that we told them to pound sand, we may in actuality see our border gurads allowed to ahve a service side arm....  I just hope to hell they get mroe training on them than the cops up here

shoot back!

Quoted: Currently, the RCMP is called on to deal with perceived threats.

By the time it takes them to put on their pretty nice red uniforms and saddle their horses the bad guys are long gone!

All this over the death of a limo driver in Richmond, CA.