Canadians could be sacrificing their privacy when they travel: Knowledge Driven Revolution

A former associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union says Canadians should not trust the U.S. government to keep their personal information private. v"I'm here to urge Canadian government officials and the Canadian people to take it with a grain of salt any assurance that the United States government has given you that your data will be protected and that laws are going to be followed," Barry Steinhardt said Friday.

He and members of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the London School of Economics met to discuss a national identification system that would keep Canadians safe without invading their privacy.

Many airports have tightened their security measures after 9-11. As of Jan. 23, 2006, it will be mandatory for Canadians to use a passport to travel by air across the Canada-U.S. border.

"This particular project brings together academics, government, industry and civil society representatives to understand the plan for and implications of new border contols and new standards for identity documents," said organizer Micheal Vonn from the B.C. association.

The group, which has members from Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, is looking at issues surrounding terrorism, illegal immigration, travel security, identity concerns and privacy.

The U.S. government says it has been using an Automated Targeting System to assess the degree of risk travellers may pose.

The system goes through the records of American and foreign citizens crossing international borders.

"Certainly Canadians have had a lot to be concerned about in terms of being excluded from travel to the United States based on bad information, based on inaccurate information," Steinhardt said.

Andrew Clement, director of the collaborative graduate program at the University of Toronto, points to the example of Maher Arar as a worse case scenario of misused information.

In 2002, Arar was detained in New York by U.S. officials who claimed he had links to al-Qaeda. He was then deported to Syria where he was jailed and tortured.

Clement also explained that there is no system in place to track how many people are wrongly detained at airports, but anecdotally the numbers are higher than might be expected.

Gus Hosein from the London School of Economics said there are lots of reasons to establish a national identity policy.

"There are all these seemingly obvious drivers towards an identity policy such as identity theft, international obligations of transborder passports, U.S. obligations at the border," Hosein said.

"And there's not enough actual debate and thinking going on in these policy shifts."

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HOME Party Police, Party Courts and Concentration Camps P3s, Nazis and Polite Canadian Fascism The Ghost in the Machine - The Forced Chemical Evolution of Man Rouge States and the 9/11 Truth Terrorists Canadians Should Pay NOT to be Poisoned: NDP V for Vendetta - R for Reality Canadian Bird Flu Pandemic Looming ? Shill of the Week: Stephan Harper Aspartame: The Sweetest Killer Chicken Little Terrorist of the Week: Creating Fake Terrorists Shill of the Week: Paul Martin The Number 1 Reason YOU became a Slave	Canadians could be sacrificing their privacy when they travel Hannah Zitner - CP December 11, 2006 A former associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union says Canadians should not trust the U.S. government to keep their personal information private. v"I'm here to urge Canadian government officials and the Canadian people to take it with a grain of salt any assurance that the United States government has given you that your data will be protected and that laws are going to be followed," Barry Steinhardt said Friday. He and members of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the London School of Economics met to discuss a national identification system that would keep Canadians safe without invading their privacy. Many airports have tightened their security measures after 9-11. As of Jan. 23, 2006, it will be mandatory for Canadians to use a passport to travel by air across the Canada-U.S. border. "This particular project brings together academics, government, industry and civil society representatives to understand the plan for and implications of new border contols and new standards for identity documents," said organizer Micheal Vonn from the B.C. association. The group, which has members from Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, is looking at issues surrounding terrorism, illegal immigration, travel security, identity concerns and privacy. The U.S. government says it has been using an Automated Targeting System to assess the degree of risk travellers may pose. The system goes through the records of American and foreign citizens crossing international borders. "Certainly Canadians have had a lot to be concerned about in terms of being excluded from travel to the United States based on bad information, based on inaccurate information," Steinhardt said. Andrew Clement, director of the collaborative graduate program at the University of Toronto, points to the example of Maher Arar as a worse case scenario of misused information. In 2002, Arar was detained in New York by U.S. officials who claimed he had links to al-Qaeda. He was then deported to Syria where he was jailed and tortured. Clement also explained that there is no system in place to track how many people are wrongly detained at airports, but anecdotally the numbers are higher than might be expected. Gus Hosein from the London School of Economics said there are lots of reasons to establish a national identity policy. "There are all these seemingly obvious drivers towards an identity policy such as identity theft, international obligations of transborder passports, U.S. obligations at the border," Hosein said. "And there's not enough actual debate and thinking going on in these policy shifts." Read the full article here Broken Link? If the link to the original article is broken or has been altered you can view the article by clicking here. About KDR \| \| Home \| \| Weekly Features Archive	Weekly Features Archive
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