Credit: CBSA

By Monia Mazigh – Yesterday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled a new legislation that would move forward what the Conservative government along with the US counterpart agreed in 2011 to implement: Beyond the Border, a shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness.

This new proposed legislation would grant powers to the Canada Border Services Agency to collect biographic data on Canadian citizens whenever they leave Canada and share them with the US government.

The novelty here is twofold:

• The data collection would happen each time someone leaves the Canadian territory. The same data collection has already been implemented at entry points. Now it applies to all entry and exit points.
• The information sharing of these biographic data with the US has already been taking place but only for foreign nationals and permanent residents. This new legislation extends it to Canadian citizens.

As usual when any security legislation is introduced, and to gain the approval and the trust of the public, the emphasis of the government was on the prevention of frauds to employment benefits, the social welfare system and the immigration system. Also, the detection of human trafficking and child abduction was evoked as an example of what this new legislation would do.

But how about our right to privacy? Wouldn’t this proposed legislation be another legal tool for more surveillance and thus opening the door to more abuses by government security agencies on both sides of the border?

Minister Goodale reaction to these legitimate concerns and fears is that this new data collection and information sharing will be done in accordance to both countries national privacy laws. But why should we trust this promise? Didn’t we just learn about cases of information collection and sharing that transgressed our laws? And Maher Arar’s case is still fresh in our legal history. How about implementing safeguards in information sharing? The Minister didn’t say a word about that.

Why should we wait for other abuses of the system to understand that these new powers need to be questioned and not always granted?

When Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale mentions during his announcement that “CBSA would not exchange passenger manifest information collected in the air mode with the U.S.” this is not totally true.

Indeed, in the previous years, CBSA has run the National Risk Assessment Centre now called National Targeting Centre (NTC), which receives and analyzes passenger information from airlines to identify individuals who pose security threats.

This centre shares Advance Passenger Information (API) including terrorism and serious crime-related lookouts with the U.S. National Targeting Centre.

It is disappointing to see how quickly the Minister of Public Safety proposed this new legislation with additional powers to CBSA whereas many civil liberties groups have been asking him persistently for months to bring more accountability to the work of CBSA, without success.

Even with what the government is proposing today in terms of parliamentary oversight, it won’t be enough to address the particular issues relevant to CBSA in terms of refugee and immigrant arrest, detention and search, seizure, data collection, information sharing and national security powers. Rather, an independent review mechanism that would be specific to the work of CBSA, that would assess and review its operations before, during and after, that would review any proposed legislation and that can independently launch investigations about complaints or allegations of abuse, is really needed and yet still inexistent.

Since you’re here… … we have a small favour to ask. Here at ICLMG, we are working very hard to protect and promote human rights and civil liberties in the context of the so-called “war on terror” in Canada. We do not receive any financial support from any federal, provincial or municipal governments or political parties. Any donations will go a long way to support our work. On the fence about giving? Check out our Achievements and Gains since we were created in 2002. Thank you for your generosity!

This open letter was co-signed by the ICLMG

Dear Prime Minister,

We write to you today to urge you to launch a Commission of Inquiry into Canada’s policies and practices relating to the transfer of hundreds of detainees to Afghan authorities during Canada’s military mission in that country.

There is overwhelming evidence that, during this mission, many of the detainees transferred – notwithstanding very clear and credible risks of torture – were indeed tortured. Canadian diplomats documented incidents where detainees were beaten with electric cables, rubber hoses or sticks; given electric shocks; forced to stand for long periods of time with their hands raised above their heads; punched or slapped; and threatened with execution or sexual assault. No one knows exactly how many detainees who were in Canadian custody were tortured, disappeared or died under Afghan custody – partly due to the lack of a rigorous monitoring regime for the conditions of detainees, and partly due to the cloud of secrecy the previous government relentlessly maintained over this matter. By exposing hundreds of Afghans to such high risks of torture, Canada failed utterly to prevent the torture of many of them, thus flouting one of the most basic legal and moral obligations: the prohibition of torture, enshrined in customary international law, international human rights treaties, international humanitarian law and Canada’s own Criminal Code.

Read more and see the signatories

Since you’re here… … we have a small favour to ask. Here at ICLMG, we are working very hard to protect and promote human rights and civil liberties in the context of the so-called “war on terror” in Canada. We do not receive any financial support from any federal, provincial or municipal governments or political parties. Any donations will go a long way to support our work. On the fence about giving? Check out our Achievements and Gains since we were created in 2002. Thank you for your generosity!

Ottawa – The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) welcomes the news of the release of Canadian citizen Salim Alaradi by a United Arab Emirate court. After spending almost 22 months in prison suffering from solitary confinement, torture and numerous health issues, Salim Alaradi can be finally reunited with his family.

“The release of Salim Alaradi is an excellent news to his family and to all his friends and supporters who campaigned tirelessly to obtain it. Since the beginning of this horrible ordeal, ICLMG along with other civil liberties groups called upon the Canadian government to ensure that the rights of Canadian citizen Salim Alaradi are protected, mainly his right to due process,” said Monia Mazigh, National coordinator of ICLMG.

Recently, 30 Canadian and international lawyers wrote to the Emirati President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan calling for the release of Salim Alaradi and the American nationals co-accused in his trial, Kamal and Mohamed Eldarat.

“The public and private pressures that have been exerted at different levels and from different governments on the Emirati government is evidence that pressure has clearly worked and that keeping quiet is not an option. The Canadian government should use all sorts of pressures in its power to obtain the release of Canadians detained abroad for political motives,” insisted Monia Mazigh.

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