Border deal a real danger for safety of Canadians say privacy groups and civil liberties advocates
by Council of Canadians et al
Ottawa, Montreal,
Toronto, Vancouver - Yesterday’s (Dec. 7, 2011) announcement in Washington, D.C. of a
Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness Action Plan amounts to
the wholesale replacement of Canadian privacy and security standards
with U.S. ones.
The result is the virtual abrogation of the privacy
rights of Canadians. This deal is nothing less than the integration of
Canada within the US security regime without any protections for
Canadians and other persons. There are
repeated references to “sharing information” and to “harmonizing”
standards, approaches, processes or programs.
Various security bodies
will meet to decide standards, with no mention of the involvement of
the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. In fact most of the concerns
raised by privacy experts in limited online consultations earlier this
year appear to have been ignored.
The perimeter action plan creates a
clear and present danger for the safety of Canadians, who will be at
even more risk of being labeled a security threat by the U.S., put on
watch lists or otherwise denied the right to travel, with no redress
mechanism. It is a complete rejection of the findings of Justice
O'Connor and the Arar Commission.
We reaffirm our
statement of principles
on the proposed border action plan, in particular that no new
security or information sharing initiative or recommendation should be
implemented or substantially negotiated with the United States prior
to an extended public and parliamentary debate in Canada.
We call on the
government of Canada to provide a public accounting of current
data-sharing arrangements between the Canada and the United States. And
we demand that the remaining Arar Commission recommendations with
respect to oversight of security activities and redress mechanisms for
individuals be implemented prior to moving any further on the
proposed perimeter action plan.
WE ENDORSE
B.C. Civil Liberties Association
Micheal Vonn, Policy Director
Tel. (604) 630-9753
www.bccla.org
B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Vincent Gogolek, Executive Director
Tel. (604) 739-9788
vgogolek@hotmail.com
Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Sukanya Pillay, Director, National Security Program
Tel. (416) 363-0321, ext. 256
pillay@ccla.org
Common Frontiers
John Foster
john491@sympatico.ca
Council of Canadians
Stuart Trew, Trade campaigner
Tel. (647) 222-9782
strew@canadians.org
International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Roch Tassé, National Coordinator
Tel. (613) 241-5298
rocht@iclmg.ca
Ligue des droits et libertés
Dominique Peschard, Président
Tel. (819) 715-7727
communication@liguedesdroits.ca
Rideau Institute
Steve Staples, President
Cel. (613) 290-2695
sstaples@rideauinstitute.ca
STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES regarding the proposed Canada-
U.S. Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness
agreement
-
A CALL FOR OPEN DEBATE: Not one initiative or
recommendation in the border action plan should be implemented or
substantially negotiated with the United States prior to an extended
public and parliamentary debate in Canada. Past efforts to harmonize
security measures across the border in an effort to ease the flow of
goods and trade have suffered from a large democratic deficit and
excessive influence from parties with a direct financial interest in
continued or improved access to the U.S. market.
-
We reject the argument that our civil liberties must be
compromised on the basis that we need to have Canadian goods and
services enter the United States with greater ease and certainty. We
assert the primacy of human and constitutional rights over economic
imperatives. (ELABORATION: Considering the highly integrated
nature of many industries working across the Canada-U.S. border, we
understand the need for more public investments in border
infrastructure, staffing and information technologies in order to reduce
shipping costs, border delays and congestion while also providing
safe and productive working conditions for workers and travellers.
Border traffic flows have been incrementally improved in recent
years, and any further changes must not take away from fundamental
human and privacy rights in the name of "economic efficiency.")
-
The Privacy Commissioner must be given authorization to review
all new agreements with the United States that affect the privacy
rights of people living in Canada, to monitor the implementation of the
agreements, and to report annually to Parliament with the results of
the reviews and monitoring.
-
There are currently no oversight and complaint mechanisms with
regards to cross-border information sharing between Canadian and
U.S. police and intelligence agencies. Building on the Arar
Commission recommendations with respect to oversight, before
entering into any information sharing arrangement with the U.S., the
government of Canada should make a public commitment to create a
single authority to oversee all federal police and security
organizations involved with the transfer of information between
Canada and other countries. This authority should be designated not
only to receive, investigate and report publicly on any complaints
arising from the provision of information to U.S. authorities, but also to
review operations and initiate investigations on its own.
-
Canada has both mutual legal and customs assistance treaties
with the United States. These treaties should be amended so that
they include appropriate provision for the protection of information
provided by Canada under Shared Vision agreements. A separate
treaty should be negotiated for the transfer of information for national
security purposes, i.e.. not for law enforcement. Such a treaty would
provide for the protection of information provided by Canada outside
of the ambit of the mutual legal and customs assistance treaties.
-
Recognizing the need to collaborate across the border, crossborder
policing exercises which result in U.S. police or security
officials operating in Canada (and vice versa) should be the
exception, not the norm. The framework agreement for the Shiprider
program normalizes the deputizing of U.S. police agents on RCMP
ships in shared waterways, requiring exceptional reasons for either
police force to decline. The mechanism for holding U.S. agents
accountable for their actions in Canada is far too vague. Under any
cross-border policing agreement, U.S. agents must be subject to
Canadian law and accountable to the Canadian courts and judicial
system.
-
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
(PIPEDA) needs to be modernized and strengthened to account for a
technological revolution in how personal information is used and
shared with the private sector and government. Under no
circumstances should Canada's privacy laws be harmonized or
otherwise made compatible with U.S. standards, which are weaker.
-
Canada's constitutional rights and the rights of workers not to face
discrimination in the workplace due to race, ethnicity, nationality,
national origin, or dual citizenship must remain paramount and not be
subjugated to satisfy U.S. security and information sharing demands.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, some immigrants,
dual-citizens and workers of colour have faced harassment at the
border and discrimination by employers in Canada operating under
U.S. laws prohibiting companies from hiring people from 19
proscribed countries.
-
Harmonization of entry-exit systems with the United States will
create pressure to align Canadian and U.S. refugee and immigration
policy. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would de facto
determine who is allowed into Canada. The federal government
already conceded too much when it agreed to U.S. Secure Flight
rules by authorizing Canadian carriers to submit large amounts of
personal information on travellers who are not heading to the United
States but merely flying over it en route to other Canadian or foreign
destinations.
-
Individuals alleged to be security threats who have been cleared
by a Canadian judicial process, Commission of Inquiry or other
process must have their personal information purged from databases
in Canada and in the U.S. and have their names removed from
watchlists (including U.S. no-fly list).
-
Inherent in the practice of pre-clearance is a system of
discrimination and surveillance of workers which is overly invasive
with little added security value. We question the use of biometrics,
facial-recognition technology and RFID (radio frequency identification)
in travel documents, all of which promote a climate of suspicion, fear
and undue surveillance instead of lasting security.
-
We call on government of Canada to provide a public accounting
of current data-sharing arrangements between the Canada and the
United States. Data-sharing arrangements already exist in myriad
forms from international agreements to informal arrangements. We
recognize that there are legitimate purposes for data-sharing between
Canada and the United States in some instances, however there is
also a great failure to provide an account of what personal
information of Canadians is currently being disclosed to the United
States. For transparency, accountability and to reasonably assess the
purported need for increased disclosures, the government of Canada
must undertake a comprehensive audit and disclose with specificity:
-
(i) what type of personal information is currently being disclosed by
Canadian authorities to the United States;
-
(ii) what limits, if any, are there on the use of this disclosed
information by the United States;
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(iii) what limits, if any, are placed on retention of that information by
the United States;
-
(iv) what mechanisms of correction or redress exist for Canadians
whose disclosed information contains errors.
