When you arrive at a Canadian border point from now on, the person inquiring what you purchased out of the country may — or may not — be toting a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol.

As Canada's first few armed border officers went on duty, the government wasn't saying exactly where they would be posted.

Beretta Px4
(Courtesy Beretta)

But Marie-Claire Coupal, a Customs Excise Union national vice-president based in Windsor, confirmed that the Windsor-Sarnia area, where bridges, tunnels and ferries link Ontario and Michigan, would have 11 armed officers on duty Monday.

They were among 39 officers who graduated from weapons courses in Ottawa and Chilliwack, B.C., on Friday, and are now authorized to carry handguns.

That number is to grow to 4,800 over 10 years under a training and equipment program budgeted at $101 million in its first two years.

Mélisa Leclerc, communications director in the office of Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said the armed presence at the border began quietly on the weekend.

Officers issued Berettas

Some newly trained officers started carrying their guns on the job on Saturday, while others did so on Monday, depending on the shifts they were assigned to, she told CBC News Online.

The 39 have been issued the government's chosen weapon, the Beretta Px4 Storm, a futuristic-looking Italian handgun with a plastic frame and a 17-round magazine. James Bond fans will recall that the fictional spy favoured a Beretta in the early books of the series.

Until now, all Canadian border officers went unarmed, in contrast to their U.S. counterparts.

The change meets a longstanding union demand, resisted by previous governments but embraced by the Conservatives under Stephen Harper. Officials of the Customs Excise Union argued that officers needed guns to protect themselves from armed criminals or terrorists they might face at the border.

Officers staged periodic walkouts at crossings south of Vancouver, among other places, when potentially dangerous U.S. fugitives were reported to be headed for Canada.

In Ottawa, government officials would not confirm reports that armed officers would be on duty at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit, and the Peace Bridge between Fort Erie and Buffalo.

"We don't mention, for security reasons, which border crossings," Leclerc said. "It's based on volumes and risk, but we don't confirm which one, which border crossing."

But she noted that the two bridges are among the busiest crossings, making it natural to speculate that they would get armed officers.

"I guess people just assumed, because it's based on volumes and risk," she said.