Privacy Digest

Palestine Chronicle - Faisal Kutty: Too Guilty to Fly, Too Innocent to Charge?: "Transport Canada must not be given a carte blanche to deprive Canadians of our liberty, mobility, equality and privacy rights, even though aviation security has now become a legitimate national security concern."

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And now we have another list to worry about.

As we consider the need to improve our intelligence and law enforcement systems, we must have an open and informed dialogue about what measures truly make us safer while ensuring that our fundamental values, liberties and rights are not sacrificed. The proper forum for such a debate is our legislature. Bypassing this vital and necessary debate - as was done with the Passenger Protect Program -- is irresponsible and cavalier particularly given the findings of Justice Dennis O'Connor in the Arar Inquiry, the Canadian track record with watch lists to date as well as the experience with such lists south of the border. The information sharing protocols and mechanisms which were criticized by Justice O'Connor have not been improved, yet the government continues with the no-fly initiative which mandates that we share - and even merge and consolidate -- information with foreign entities and agencies, which may have less scruples in listing and targeting innocent people on flimsy grounds.

Making lengthy watch lists based on subjective and political criteria and then giving the power to add and remove names to agencies that have a vested interest in the national security agenda is akin to asking the fox to guard the hen house. Such lists - which will inevitably fill up very quickly with "false positives", political dissidents, and those whom our friends and neighbours subjectively designate as threats - will not make us any safer or interrupt any terrorists, if the U.S. experience is any indication. To make matters worse, real terrorists may not even be placed on the list for fear of tipping them off. According to the U.S. homeland security department, known terrorists are not placed on the list for fear that they would know they are being watched. Even this new "made-in-Canada" list will be shaped by the U.S. and other nations' lists as they cross-fertilize pursuant to intelligence agreements, the Smart Border Declaration and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), both of which call for increased cooperation and information sharing.

How can such a list provide anything more than a false sense of security while leaving it rife for blacklisting innocent people as well as racial and religious profiling? Indeed, Canadians should be asking the government how an individual can be too dangerous to fly, yet be free to roam the streets and plot terror.

The no-fly list threatens liberty, equality and mobility rights guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Moreover, it leaves little practical recourse to get off the list.

The experience of some individuals who are already encountering difficulties in flying within Canada without even having a list of our own does not give one much confidence. The extraterritorial application of U.S. watch lists is already impacting on Canadians - how will Canadians fare once Transport Canada introduces its own official list and over time it becomes increasingly shaped by other nations' intelligence, criteria and practices?

(Via Palestine Chronicle .)