A sense of insecurity on the border

It's been a rough week for America's gatekeepers, not least because of the accidental Internet posting of 90 pages studded with sensitive data on how U.S. security officers filter out bad guys.

Heads are already rolling in Washington over the leak, mocked mercilessly….

The embarrassing gaffe happened to coincide with a major three-day conference on land border issues culminating in a three-amigos-style panel Thursday featuring the heads of the Canadian, American and Mexican border agencies.

It was a chance for the gatekeepers to seize back the narrative. And going by the disappointed faces of a ballroom full of suits at the Washington Convention Center, they didn't.

All the buzzwords were there – plenty of talk about streamlining flow, eliminating redundant paperwork, improving integration of data to better balance the demands of security and trade. But the pace of those developments are in doubt, particularly given the budget concerns outlined by Canadian Border Services Agency President Stephen Rigby, who forewarned the money is simply not there to roll out a rapid transformation on the Canadian side….