Border officials to share traveller info with federal gov't

[oneh2obabe]

Canadian border officials plan to share personal information obtained under a new Canada-U.S. border data exchange program with other federal departments, the Star has learned.

The program, in which Ottawa and Washington will start sharing their citizens’ travel and biographic data this summer, means anyone from Canada travelling to or from the United States by land can have his or her information passed on to federal departments.

The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed the new practice and said data would be passed on only in accordance with stringent rules.

But the revelation is raising questions about privacy, how the information will be used and whether the federal government plans to use this data to crack down on immigration, citizenship, health and tax cheats.

“With this system, it is a blank cheque to the Big Brother. Where you go and when you go becomes government property,” said immigration policy analyst Richard Kurland.

Kurland said the data collected can be used as an enforcement tool of immigrant residency and citizenship laws for newcomers, as well as in the application of health care and taxation rules for Canadian citizens by counting their days spent in Canada.

CBSA spokesperson Esme Bailey would not say if this new program would be used as an enforcement tool for purposes other than border security. However, she said “access to the information will be limited to designated users with an operational requirement for the information on a “need-to-know” basis.

“All personal data received will be stored in a secure database and IT safeguards and restrictions will be in place in accordance with the Government of Canada security policies and standards.”

The CBSA wouldn’t specify which departments would have access, but added the data wouldn’t be shared with the provinces.

Currently, under the bilateral “Entry/Exit Initiative,” Canada and the United States are already collecting and exchanging the entry data at all land border ports of entry of third-country nationals, permanent residents, visitors, foreign students and those who are here on work permits.

But beginning this summer, the scope of the program will be extended to all people travelling through land border crossings, including Canadian and American citizens.

Ultimately, in the program’s final phase, Canada will develop a system to establish exit records similar to those in the United States, where airlines are required to submit passenger info on outbound international flights.

The personal information collected includes a traveller’s name, date of birth, nationality, sex, document type, document number, work location code/port of entry code, date and time of entry, and the country where the travel document is issued.

“The Entry/Exit initiative will allow the Government of Canada to better manage access to Canada to enhance security capabilities,” said CBSA in an internal operational bulletin issued in June.

“It will also increase the effectiveness of its border management and enable targeted policy development and implementation in the future.”

To maintain Canadian permanent residency, a person must be in Canada for at least two years within a five-year period. Many so-called “phantom immigrants,” who land here and return to their home country, often cheat the system by leaving and returning to Canada through the U.S. land border.

And when they apply for Canadian citizenship, which requires them to be physically present for at least three years or 1,095 days over the previous four years, there’s no record of their absence in Canada.

With the extension of the data collection to Canadian citizens, Kurland said the policy implication will be even more far-reaching since the applications of laws such as income taxes and health-care eligibility are built upon residency, which has traditionally been hard to track and enforce.

Officials will now have the tool to go after Canadians who claim to be non-residents in Canada to avoid paying income taxes but yet have spent more than 182 days in the country to meet the threshold, said Kurland.

Many provinces also impose a three-month wait for health care and a person loses coverage after an extended period of absence, he added.

http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration ... nment.html

[normaM]

This troubles me

[jimmy4321]

I always assumed they did, especially post 911

[Bsuds]

I always assumed they did, especially post 911

Me too

[Rwede]

I don't care if someone in a big room somewhere knows that I went to the US to watch a football game. It won't change my life nor infringe upon my freedoms.

[Bsuds]

I don't care if someone in a big room somewhere knows that I went to the US to watch a football game. It won't change my life nor infringe upon my freedoms.

Here I thought you would have blamed it on either the NDP or the Unions...lol

[Woodenhead]

They've done this sort of thing for years, it's simply the scope changing. I'm not a fan of it, then or now. I'll take privacy over snooping any day, no matter how innocuous the snooping may seem to be. Only the intellectually blind and/or scared welcome more surveillance with open arms, full stop.

[Hassel99]

Is the CBSA not part of the federal government already?

This makes sense, and seems well overdue.

[Phoenix2014]

Someone did an analysis in the US and came up with these figures, among others :
It's more likely an American will be eaten by a shark than ever be injured by a terrorist
I't's more likely that a person will smother themselves in their own bed than ever be injured by a terrorist
It's more likely that an American will be shot by an American policeman than ever be injured by terrorist.

All these things are even more likely to happen to Canadians, than ever being injured by a terrorist. Lord knows you are WAY WAY WAY more likely to get hit by a car than ever get injured by a terrorist.

Yet Big Brother gets more and more in our faces "to protect us from terrorism".

WHo protected the gypsies and the Jews when they were all accounted for and tracked.. and that was before the technology today. We have lived in a safe country for so long we assume it will always be this way, that we won't ever have people like Syria's present president or any number of other "leaders" who were quite willing to slaughter their own citizens who objected to their policies. We are not somehow immune from that happening here.

Even if people don't see the problem for themselves, they owe it to their kids and grandchildren not to allow too much power to rest in government hands. Even Jefferson pointed out that over time, governments inevitably become tyrannical, no matter how well intentioned they start out.

People who would abandon freedom for security end up with neither.

[mexi cali]

Yet Big Brother gets more and more in our faces "to protect us from terrorism".

It isn't about the likelihood. It's about the devastation that results when terrorist attacks occur and what it does to change the way we all live in the aftermath.

Obviously to us 9/11 is the most significant.

If somehow sharing peoples movements cross border result in the prevention of a terrorist attack then I say great!

It might be me who gets to keep his legs below the knee because someone with a pressure cooker bomb decides to make a point at the Penticton Marathon or in the concourse at Safeco field.

I have nothing to hide.

And lets not kid ourselves; there is no privacy anymore.

I think that this has been a practice for years and that they are simply letting us know in their own way that is happening.

We rely on these groups of security organizations to protect us so lets let them.

And if you don't want anyone to know what you're up to in the privacy of your own home, stay off the grid or straighten it out.

[36Drew]

It isn't about the likelihood. It's about the devastation that results when terrorist attacks occur and what it does to change the way we all live in the aftermath.

There has been a lot of devastation on Canadian soil over the years. None of it related to terrorist attacks.

I have no desire to have my tax dollars wasted on security theater, which in and of itself has been proven repeatedly to be broken. Those dollars are far better served being injected into education and medicine.

[Woodenhead]

I have nothing to hide.

Then you have no reason to watch me. It's a weak argument, at any rate. Old material, debunked thoroughly long ago.

However, it also comes down to one's values/beliefs/priorities - that part is largely opinion, and therefore not worth arguing.