Time to review Canada's security links with U.S.
With our no-fly list set to go into effect, Ottawa is moving closer to meshing security operations with Washington, despite its poor human rights' record

By Maude Barlow
Toronto Star, January 22, 2007

In a few weeks, Canada's no-fly list goes into effect. All travellers entering or leaving Canada will have their names checked against a list of "specified persons" the government doesn't want flying. There has been a lot of speculation about whether that list will be shared with the United States, with most commentators guaranteeing that it will be.

This is bad news for Canadians, whose legal and human rights have been put into question by recent U.S. laws. But criticizing the no-fly list successfully demands that we look at the broader picture of security co-operation with George Bush's America.

The Maher Arar commission revealed the consequences of sharing information about Canadians with foreign security agencies. Justice Dennis O'Connor pointed out in his report last year that once such information is in foreign hands, "it will be used in accordance with the laws of the foreign jurisdiction, which may not be the same as Canadian law."

A review of our security arrangements with countries like Syria and Egypt is well overdue. But we must not forget that the United States is also a foreign country. It was, after all, the laws of that foreign jurisdiction that allowed Arar, a Canadian citizen, to be deported to Syria and tortured.

In fact, the recent signing of the Military Commissions Act by President George Bush makes it even easier for the U.S. to deport Canadians to countries where they will be tortured.

The Military Commissions Act strips all non-U.S. citizens, including Canadians, of their constitutional right to a fair trial. It grants the U.S. president the authority to detain non-citizens indefinitely, without charge, and "to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions" as they relate to torture.

Worse, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, the act "allows detainees to be sentenced to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses (and) grants officials in the Bush administration a retroactive "get-out-of-jail-free card for war crimes."

So why is Canada even considering a shared no-fly list and closer security and policing ties with the U.S. when it puts us at such enormous risk?

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a strong push on both sides of the border to integrate the Canadian and American security apparatuses. Much of this push is happening within the framework of the Smart Border Agreement of 2001 and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), agreed to by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico in 2005.

Dozens of bureaucratic working groups are currently implementing the SPP through adjustments to Canadian policy, especially security policy.

If you haven't heard about the security partnership, it's because our government is very careful to disguise what are actually trinational security measures as "made-in-Canada" solutions to terrorism. (Click here to read more about the SPP)

This is especially worrying because of the degree to which the security partnership adopts U.S. measures as the norm, pulling Canadians under U.S. jurisdiction.

For instance, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon's "made-in-Canada" no-fly list is anything but. We know, from the 2006 SPP Report to Leaders, that "compatible (North American) advance passenger information systems" and "compatible criteria for the posting of lookouts of suspected terrorists and criminals" are priorities of the security integration agenda of the security partnership to be completed by June 2007.

However "made-in-Canada" our list is for the moment, it will be ultimately merged with the U.S. no-fly list, which has already included peace activists, preschoolers and one U.S. senator.

We know now that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been storing information on all travellers entering and leaving the U.S. in order to grade them on their risk as a terrorist or criminal.

Under the Automated Targeting System (ATS), travellers are not permitted to see or challenge their terrorism score, even if it can be used to detain or deport them to countries where they will be tortured.

More disturbing were revelations in the final Arar commission report that the Canadian Border Security Agency has also been collecting data on all Canadian travellers through a National Risk Assessment Centre (NRAC).

"Canada and the United States use the same risk-analysis system," wrote O'Connor in his report. And, "pursuant to a 2005 memorandum of understanding, NRAC automatically shares information with the U.S. National Targeting Center ..." Furthermore, the Arar commission claims that, eventually, information on any Canadian flyer whose risk score is above a certain threshold will be automatically shared with U.S. authorities.

Arar was deported under this kind of careless information-sharing agreement. That's not a threshold anyone should find comforting.

While it is obviously important to collaborate with the United States on certain common security issues, there must be clear limits on how information is shared with all foreign governments.

"The need for information sharing does not mean that information should be shared without controls," wrote O'Connor. "Nor does it mean exchanging information without regard to its relevance, reliability or accuracy, or without regard to laws protecting personal information or human rights."

The signing of the Military Commissions Act and recent reports about the U.S. Automated Targeting System make it obvious that Washington holds little regard for laws protecting personal information and human rights.

And yet Canada is plowing ahead with plans to further integrate our two security apparatuses through opaque trinational agreements like the security partnership.

It's crucial that we keep this in mind while criticizing Canada's new no-fly list. There is a larger agenda at work here and stopping some Canadians from flying is just the beginning.

Maude Barlow is national chair of the Council of Canadians.