The Georgia Straight is reporting that "CBC News has reported that a Toronto business lawyer's phone and laptop were seized by Canada Border Services Agency officers after he refused to tell them passwords. The lawyer, former Green party candidate Nick Wright, told CBC that he feels that searching phones without a warrant a "a breach of our constitutional rights". Section 8 of the charter states that everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure."
He is absolutely correct. If he was entering the US they would have said the Canadian Charter of Rights doesn't apply. They would also have said since he was a Canadian he is not protected by the US Constitution. That is what their courts have upheld and it is disgusting. This happening in Canada is obscene. He is a Canadian on Canadian soil. The Charter of Rights applies.
Perhaps the border security people who work for the Government of Canada need to be told, this is Canada and not the U.S.A. They may want to emulate their associates who work for the American government, but Canada still is a democracy. I am appalled by these actions. It is a good way though for the authorities to have a look at what they normally would never be allowed to look at.
ReplyDeletePersonally if I were to cross the border, I would do it without my phone and purchase a new one on the other side, that goes the same for a computer. There is no such thing as confidential once you put it on a device.
"They may want to emulate their associates who work for the American government".....
DeleteThere is no "MAY" to it. The RCMP Gun Task Force has ATF guys come up and work with them, and although this is going back about 20 years, Canadians on the Coquihalla and elsewhere in the Interior, Chilliwack/Hope are were being pulled over by a "Mountie" with a broad Texas accent. turned out there were Texas Rangers up there advising RCMP on how to profile/identify "criminals", pull them over, ask for consent to search, etc. and were using an unmarked car to pull people over themselves. Unbelievable, right? This stopped after it became known, but it obviously should not have been happening to begin with.
So yeah, whether Canadian LEO's will admit it or not, they've always had a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to that, they view US Law Enforcement as "the big leagues"....which is kind of funny since Canada is every bit the equal of the USA when it comes to the various criminal elements. The difference is, down south they do more about it.
Canadian cops could be The Real Police™ too if they wanted to be. "Ain't nuthin to it but to do it".
it can be dangerous to stop for an unmarked vehicle, these days. You truly don't know who is in it. Don't know if all Canadian law enforcement considers them to be big league. Many Canadians consider American law enforcement to be a savage ugly bunch, who violate the law on a consistent basis and murder people of colour even more regularly.
ReplyDeleteCertainly would never want Canadian law enforcement officers to be "the real police" and certainly they would find themselves in human rights tribunals if they were to "do it".
yes, in Canada, we have provincial and federal human rights commissions/tribunals, which actually do make a difference. if the U.S.A. had them, many people who are dead, might not be. Now let me say the Human Rights commissions can work very slowly and some times not as effectively as some would want, but they do work which is more than the Americans have going for them.
States in the USA do have "Civil Rights Commissions". However, they seem to prioritize witch-hunts against Christians:
Deletehttps://activistmommy.com/good-news-colorado-baker-jack-phillips-allowed-to-sue-colorado-for-anti-christian-hostility/
If I remember correctly, that's pretty much the Canadian equivalents' modus operandi...