Border officials pay visit to Red River Ex

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This article was published 25/06/2016 (3557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ACTING on a tip there were 20 illegal immigrants working at the Red River Ex, the Canada Border Services Agency confirmed it was at the exhibition Friday to investigate the claim.

Officials showed up before the Ex opened but made no arrests, and no one was detained, an agency spokeswoman in Calgary said Saturday evening.

There were no other details available.

“I’m not sure why they were doing that,” Garth Rogerson, the Red River Ex’s CEO, said in a phone call confirming CBSA officials had been there.

The officers didn’t go near the midway. The attention was on the exhibition’s centre for vendors.

Rogerson said the officials from the CBSA, which oversees immigration and customs matters for Canada, showed up around noon. They were focused on Exhibition Place, a building on the fairgrounds where vendors and various artists set up stands and where entertainment displays are showcased.

“They checked the IDs, from what I understand,” Rogerson said. “They didn’t make any arrests, and this was about noonish. We were opened up as usual; this was just as the exhibitors were coming in. It was no big deal.”

Vendors told the Free Press Saturday eight or more CBSA vehicles were waiting outside the rear of Exhibition Place before it opened Friday, and about 20 officers entered the building, which was shut down for 45 minutes to an hour.

The officers took people working at a booth out of the building, the vendors said, adding the officers were there for a few hours.