MP Cheryl Gallant has sounded the alarm on Bill S-7, which would give border agents the authority to search Canadians’ phones whenever they have “reasonable general concern.”
“Normally, if the government wants to search your phone, it would have to go to court and present the reasons they believe searching your phone would provide evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Law enforcement must convince a justice of the Peace that they have “reasonable grounds to believe”. Those words, “reasonable grounds to believe,” are key,” writes Gallant in a newsletter.
She continues, stating that this phrase is understood by all those in the legal profession and sets clear limits on when a border officer can seize or search a person’s personal device.
“Over the years and across many court cases, the phrase “reasonable grounds to believe” has been clearly defined. Prosecutors, judges, and defence lawyers KNOW what “reasonable grounds to believe” means. But, that is not what the socialist alliance bill says,” Gallant continues.
“Trudeau wants to be able to search your phone if his Border Agents have a “reasonable general concern”. According to Brenda McPhail, the director of the privacy, technology, and surveillance program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, this is a shockingly low and completely “legally novel threshold.””
During an interview with the Wire Report, McPhail said, “The lower the threshold for these searches, the easier it is for individual officers exercising their discretion to use their search authority in ways that are potentially discriminatory or racist, based on their own implicit, hidden bias — not even necessarily maliciously or on purpose.”
Gallant continues, saying the Bill has “major privacy implications.” Moreover, the Privacy Commissioner was not consulted, even though he previously issued a report on the Canada Border Services Agency’s practice of searching people’s personal devices, which produced damning results.
“Out of the six complaints the Commissioner investigated, he found that Border Agents had searched one person’s social media and bank account using that person’s phone. In another 3 cases, the Border Agents did not enable airplane mode as they are required to do. In the remaining 2 cases being investigated, the Border Agents did take note of whether they did not turn on airplane mode. This means in 100 per cent of the cases, the Border Agents broke their own rules, or they could not prove they hadn’t broken the rules,” Gallant explains.
Gallant also claims that this Bill is beginning in the Senate because Trudeau and the NDP-Liberals believe that the media doesn’t usually pay attention to bills in the Senate, so they’ll be able to sneak it through the first stages without public contention.
She further suggests that the vaccine passport gave Trudeau’s government the “vague powers to search your phone,” making it “harder to say we live in a free country.”
Gallant ends her newsletter by promising that Conservatives “will fight this every way we can” and urges Canadians to contact their senators and tell everyone they know about Bill S-7.
