After Liberal-appointed senators likened a cellphone search bill to a fascist measures that would promote racial profiling, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino yesterday defended it as necessary and constitutional. .“This is a new legal threshold,” Mendicino testified at the Senate national security committee. “A novel threshold does not give officers carte blanche to examine personal digital devices,” he added..According to Blacklock's Reporter, Bill S-7 outlines grounds for searches of travelers’ cellphones, tablets and laptops by the Canada Border Services Agency..It permits officers with a “reasonable general concern” of criminality to demand that travelers surrender their passwords under threat of having those devices seized by the Agency..“The new threshold of ‘reasonable general concern’ is meant to be higher than mere suspicion or a hunch,” said Mendicino. He said the bill could not be more specific..Senator David Richards (N.B.) compared the bill to police tactics in fascist Spain. “I find this arbitrary and intrusive and I don’t think what you’ve said today really convinces me otherwise,” said Richards..“It’s the same kind of searches I witnessed in Spain during Franco,” said Richards. “Who gets to decide whom to search and how in God’s name can we ever be fair or impartial during these searches? I don’t think you’ve convinced me.”.Senator Mobina Jaffer (B.C.) said the definition of “reasonable general concern” was so vague it promoted racial profiling. “I don’t understand how this will not lead to racial profiling and systemic discrimination,” said Jaffer..“Over the last 20 years I have been working to stop racial profiling especially when it comes to the Canada Border Services Agency," said Jaffer. “I can’t help but think this is going to lead to racial profiling and to systemic racism at the border. I am very concerned.”.“I am talking about people like me who suffered the indignity of a second examination that wasn’t necessary,” said Senator Jaffer..Legislators have repeatedly cited the Border Services Agency for profiling. Then-Liberal MP Gagan Sikand (Mississauga-Streetsville, Ont.) in 2020 told the House of Commons he knew of “gross misconduct” involving visible minorities..“As a South Asian male there have been many incidents where there has been gross misconduct,” said Sikand. “As a South Asian male I have had many incidents with friends and family at border crossings where there has been gross mishandling of our entry or departure from the country.”.Bill S-7 was prompted by a 2020 Alberta Court of Appeal ruling that struck down random cellphone searches as unconstitutional. The ruling came in the case of travelers targeted if they were “overly friendly,” appeared to be “sweating profusely,” did not make eye contact or were traveling alone with several pieces of luggage.
