RSS FeedCriteria for Body Scan Screenings
We seem to be getting mixed messages today about the use of body scanners in Canada.
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada conducted two Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) for the Canadian Air Transport Security Association (CATSA) to assess the impact of whole body scanners.
Assistant Privacy Commission Chantal Bernier said in a speech in Ottawa on October 30, 2009,
…we consider this technology to be inherently sensitive as it reveals an outline of the traveller’s body. Many people may perceive it as privacy invasive.
Pulat Yunusov has noted earlier that the personal privacy issues may not necessarily be as significant, given the low resolution and identity controls around the imaging.
Of greater concern is which individuals are selected for body scans. Bernier allayed these concerns as well in the same speech,
…the technology will be used only for secondary purposes, after an individual has already passed through the metal detector. What’s more, the scans will be voluntary, with passengers given the option of going through them, or having a physical pat-down.
Bernier repeated these criteria today in comments to the press, stating that it is only for those who have failed the metal detector test.
However, Rob Merrifield, Junior Transport Minister, stated in a joint conference with John Baird,
Travelers who are selected for secondary screening will be asked to walk through the wave scanner…
[emphasis added]
Although Merrifield did mention the alternative physical search, the metal detector is conspicuously absent – at least in media reports of the conference.
Removing the metal detector component of secondary screening makes the scans no longer voluntary. It also introduces a significant amount of arbitrariness and discretion into their use, making them subject to abuse.
Anyone compelled to go through a body scan without failing a metal detector test, or not informed of the alternative physical search if they do, should issue a complain while citing the PIA guidelines. At the very least, the Ministers should clarify what the criteria are for using the body scanners to avoid confusion among the public and by security officials.
Ministers of the opposition parties have noted that typically an issue like this would go before a Parliamentary committee, where such clarification would likely be sought.
But that’s right, we can’t do that because with have a Prime Minister that would prorogue politics over our safety.
Charkaoui is free
Judge formally strikes down security certificate against Charkaoui
Charkaoui is a landed immigrant who was arrested in Montreal in 2003 under security-certificate legislation that allows Canada to expel foreign-born individuals if they are considered a national security risk.
One correction, Canadian Press: the security certificate law applies only to non-citizens, not “foreign-born individuals.”
Ottawa abandons case against Charkaoui
Divisive terror law losing traction
Can we trust secret evidence, often borrowed from foreign countries, to throw people out of Canada?
Colin Freeze explains the security certificates:
… federal ministers sign off on a certificate after viewing secret CSIS information, which allows officials to immediately jail, and eventually deport, a non-citizen.
The “intelligence” used to do this is disclosed to judges but never fully revealed to the accused, drawn as it usually is from secret agents and wiretaps, sometimes placed within Canada but also frequently “loaned” from foreign governments on condition that the provenance be kept secret.
Charkaoui: the name every Canadian law student knows
Charkaoui, however, is the legal star of the five. He’s won two Supreme Court challenges and, as he gradually demolished Ottawa’s case against him, managed to make the government look like an idiot.
