Law Times

Page 8 March 12, 2018 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com Immigration lawyers express support for CBSA watchdog BY LISA CUMMING For Law Times I mmigration lawyers are voicing support for an inde- pendent federal agency that would review the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Po- lice. Details on the proposed body — the Canada Law En- forcement Review Commis- sion — emerged earlier this year. Through a federal freedom- of-information request, media obtained a report produced for Public Safety Canada, authored by former Privy Council Office chief Mel Cappe, for a new in- dependent watchdog to handle public complaints about the CBSA and the RCMP. Lawyers say that an indepen- dent review body for the CBSA and the RCMP would increase accountability and transparency because complaints wouldn't be reviewed internally and recom- mendations from the agency would be made public. Barbara Jo Caruso, a partner at Corporate Immigration Law Firm in Toronto and an execu- tive member in the Canadian Bar Association's immigration section, says an independent watchdog is "absolutely neces- sary." "We often have clients that have language barriers or they are coming from countries where they are not accustomed to dealing with persons in au- thority in a democratic society, so they tend to be more vulner- able to being intimidated or con- cerned that what they are going to say or do may negatively im- pact them," she says. Caruso says an independent review body would be useful for immigration lawyers — and, more importantly, their clients — because lawyers represent people who cross the Canadian border, whether by air or by land. "The frequency of incidents, some more minor and some more serious, is quite high in terms of issues that the general public encounters in dealing with the agency, and sometimes it's as simple as professionalism, but other times, it's quite seri- ous in terms of an infringement of rights, the ability to enter the country to work or to study in Canada. The ability to just enter the country as a tourist can be denied," she says. She says an independent agency reviewing the CBSA would benefit Canadian citizens and CBSA agents as well. "[T]here are always two sides to a story," she says. "If an incident or a circum- stance arises and there is a com- plaint, having an independent body to review it and an inde- pendent process might actually benefit the CBSA officer, and in some instances, vindicate their exercise of jurisdiction." Negar Achtari, a senior part- ner with Achtari Law in Ottawa, says that, presently, if a person has a complaint with the CBSA, they can write to the CBSA's complaint section, but it's un- known what happens with the complaint. "The internal review is not something [lawyers] have access to so, hopefully, with that kind of a body, we will know what kind of standards the CBSA is held against and how complaints are treated and evaluated," she says. Mel Cappe, a professor at the University of Toronto's School of Public Policy and Governance and the author of the report, confirmed with Law Times that the proposed agency would be able to handle public complaints about the Canada Border Ser- vices Agency and the RCMP, dismiss frivolous complaints, share information with other review bodies and follow up on evidence and issue non-binding recommendations to the RCMP and CBSA. It would also be able to initi- ate reviews and look into issues on its own accord. As well, the minister of Public Safety would be able to instigate the agency to look into issues and conduct reviews. The issuing of non-binding recommendations gives lawyers mixed feelings about the effec- tiveness of the proposed agency. Robert Israel Blanshay, founder and senior lawyer of Blanshay Law in Toronto, says he doesn't see the purpose of creating a federal agency that can only make non-binding rec- ommendations. "If you're going to create an independent agency or body overseeing CBSA, what's the point of non-binding propos- als?" he says. Blanshay says the Ontario Superior Court was "wide-eyed and shocked" when hearing details during the 2017 hearing on Ricardo Scotland, an immi- gration detainee from Barba- dos. Scotland had no criminal record, but he was held for 18 months over two stints near Ni- agara Falls, Ont. in a maximum- security detention facility over two years. "There are real, concrete con- cerns about the agency," he says. Caruso says that indepen- dent oversight of the RCMP was called for during scrutiny over the treatment of Maher Arar. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was deported from the United States to Syria in 2002, where he was tortured, because of inaccurate information given to United States agents by the RCMP. Last year, the federal govern- ment passed Bill C-22 to estab- lish the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Par- liamentarians, which has the authority to inspect national security and intelligence activi- ties across the Government of Canada, including the RCMP and CBSA. The government has also endeavoured to create the Na- tional Security and Intelligence Review Agency, a review body that would act as an indepen- dent agency with the ability to review national security and intelligence activities across the Government of Canada, includ- ing those done by the CBSA. LT — with files from Gabrielle Giroday FOCUS ON Immigration Law Barbara Jo Caruso says there is a need for an independent watchdog to review the operations and policies of the Canada Border Services Agency. FOCUS Nominate your choices between March 12 and April 3 V i s i t WWW.CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/SURVEYS MOST*NkUENTIAL TOP 2 5 Untitled-6 1 2018-03-06 2:30 PM

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