The following is from the 26 September 2012 edition of Embassy Magazine.
Departmental notes also suggest government working on biometric tracking for several groups.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada plans to introduce new legal rules that would force Canadians and Americans to present authorized travel documents such as passports when entering Canada, according to departmental notes.
Government documents obtained by Embassy under access to information legislation show the move, part of the perimeter security plan between Canada and the United States, will bring Canadian and American law closer.
Under the US Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Canadians and others have had to pack official travel documents like passports since 2007 when they fly to the US, and since 2009 when driving or sailing there.
But while Canada demands such documents from most people when entering the country, Canadian and American citizens have so far been excluded—along with eight other groups of people.
Instead of demanding authorized travel documents like a passport, the Canada Border Services Agency has so far encouraged Canadians and Americans to bring them along—or, failing that, to bring other documents like birth certificates and photo IDs to help with identifying them at the border, according to a 2011 press release.
The department considers that “a gap in existing legislation,” one document notes, and one it is moving to close.
“CIC plans to introduce legislative and regulatory changes to require all travellers, including Canadian and U.S. citizens, to present prescribed documents, such as a passport or enhanced driver’s licence, when entering Canada by air, land or sea,” it reads.
“A similar entry document requirement was implemented by the U.S. under their Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.”
The document is part of notes detailing a meeting held by CIC’s top bureaucrat, Deputy Minister Neil Yeates, on April 2, as part of his Deputy Minister’s Advisory Council.
In response to questions to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office concerning when the government plans to introduce legislation and regulatory changes, a government spokesperson said CIC is still considering the issue.
CIC “has committed to review document entry requirements to Canada. Policy consideration of this issue is ongoing,” wrote Tracie LeBlanc, a CIC communications advisor, in an email to Embassy.
Other groups affected
In addition to Canadians and Americans, the document continues, the eight other groups of people who would soon have to present travel documents like passports at the border are:
- Canadian and US permanent residents;
- Canadians with Indian status;
- Greenland residents;
- French citizens from the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland;
- Armed forces visiting Canada; and
- Crews of airplanes and ships.
“Formalizing the requirement for all travellers, regardless of citizenship, to present a prescribed secure document in order to enter Canada will close a gap in existing legislation and support more efficient screening at ports of entry,” the document reads.
“Border officers will no longer be required to verify identity through oral statements or other, less secure identity documents.”
Tracking, biometrics
A system to track entries and exits from Canada is being set up by the CBSA, and the document notes that the immigration department’s legislation will support this system.
Data collected by the new system “will assist CIC officers in identifying visa overstays and confirming residence in Canada,” the document adds.
The department is hoping that this will reduce fraud in citizenship programs like those for temporary residents and permanent residents.
Mr. Kenney has discussed setting up an information system at the border that would track permanent residents and allow Canadian officials to “remove people who are illegally in Canada,” according to a Sept. 17 iPolitics article.
“In the future, under the exit information system, when permanent residents are leaving the country they will have to swipe their PR card on the way out and then of course on the way back in,” he is quoted as stating.
That will take a “couple” of years to put in place, he added.
The document also details another aspect that Mr. Kenney has mentioned: setting up a system to record biometric information like fingerprints for certain groups.
“Canada plans to implement the systematic sharing of biographic and biometric information with the U.S. for all temporary and permanent resident visa, work and study permit applicants, all individuals applying for refugee resettlement overseas and in-land refugee status,” the document reads.
The sharing of biometric information like fingerprints is expected to happen in 2014, it adds.
Parliament passed a bill earlier this year that codifies the government’s plan to introduce biometric requirements for travellers, students, and workers coming from certain countries and territories that require visas starting in 2013.
Canada also already participates in a project with New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States to share biometric information of some non-citizens such as asylum claimants and those involved in immigration enforcement cases. But the government “has no plans to collect biometrics from Canadian citizens,” wrote Ms. LeBlanc.
She added that “fingerprints collected by the Government of Canada as part of a temporary resident or refugee application will be checked against the U.S. database and will be deleted by the U.S. whether or not there is a match.”
The government is hoping this system will help “Canadian and U.S. authorities identify failed refugee claimants, deportees, previously refused applicants, and visitor visa applicants using fraudulent identities before they get to North America,” wrote Ms. LeBlanc.
“Applicants’ privacy will be protected in accordance with Canada’s Privacy Act.”
Legal issues
While the overall perimeter security plan between Canada and the United States was largely revealed in road-map documents presented by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President Barack Obama in December 2011, they “are not legally-binding agreements,” according to the document.
As a result, many of the changes to border security, cross-border policing, cross-border trade, and international travel that the Harper government and the Obama administration have envisioned must first be established in law.
One of those legal changes has already been implemented: the government’s spring budget contained amendments that permanently legalized a process where US law enforcement agents can be certified as police in Canadian waters.
Another legal change, however, has been stalled. Embassy has reported that a plan to permit US agents to pursue suspects across the land border and onto Canadian soil—the trial runs of which were supposed to have been in place by summer 2012—is “on hold” while legal issues are resolved.
Government-wide effort
CIC’s role in introducing legislation also underscores that while the public face of the perimeter plan has largely been handled thus far by Public Safety Canada, other departments and agencies like CIC are working behind the scenes.
“CIC has the lead or is involved in a number of important initiatives under this Action Plan,” the document reads.
In addition to CIC, at least seven other Canadian federal departments or agencies are involved, according to the 2011 plan, and they are co-ordinating work with nine American federal departments or agencies, and as a handful of top officials from both sides.
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