The national security and intelligence watchdog says the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) needs to better document how and why it selects certain air passengers for possible closer scrutiny.
The CBSA’s targeting program uses pre-arrival risk assessments to identify air travelers most likely to be prohibited from entering Canada.
First, the border services agency reviews passenger information typically provided by commercial air carriers, including age, gender and national or ethnic origin.
The National Security and Intelligence Review Office (NSIRA) has found that the border services agency relies on information and intelligence from a variety of sources to determine which data elements should be considered risk indicators.
A report from the intelligence watchdog released Thursday says the CBSA has the legal authority to carry out such targeting of air passengers.
However, the report noted gaps in the documentation of the border agency’s program activities, which made it difficult to verify that all decisions complied with legal and regulatory restrictions.
“These deficiencies also hamper the CBSA’s own ability to provide effective internal oversight,” the report reads.
A “risk of discrimination”
In 2019-20, the border agency used airline information to assess the risks of 33.9 million arriving international travelers.
“Brief suspensions of passengers’ freedom of movement are reasonable, being the state’s legitimate interest in screening travelers and regulating their entry,” the report said.
However, he adds that the border agency’s activities “must not be discriminatory”, given the obligations set out in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The lack of adequate justification, in several cases, for the CBSA’s use of indicators created from passenger data results in a “risk of discrimination”, mentions the analysis.
It is important to ensure that the targeting program’s sorting practices are “supported by relevant, reliable and documented information to demonstrate that the equality rights of travelers are respected,” according to the report.
The monitoring office recommends a number of measures to improve record keeping and to identify and reduce risks of discrimination. In the accompanying responses, the border services agency agrees with the various recommendations.
The review, which took place from November 2020 to September 2021, focused on the border agency’s triage activities in targeting air passengers in relation to potential national security threats. But it also looked at elements related to illicit migration and smuggling.
Two methods
The CBSA has two methods for screening passengers using passenger data: flight list targeting and scenario targeting.
Flight list targeting is a manual triage method that involves first selecting an incoming flight that is considered to have a “high risk” of carrying passengers who may break the law.
Targeting officers then select passengers from these flights for further examination based on details about them.
Scenario-based targeting is an automated triage method that relies on pre-established sets of indicators, created from passenger data, that the CBSA considers risk factors for an enforcement issue particular.
Passenger data from all incoming flights is automatically compared to the parameters of each scenario, the report said. Any passenger whose data matches all parameters of one or more scenarios is automatically selected for further evaluation.
Regarding the Border Services Agency’s automated scenario-based targeting method, NSIRA found that the use of passenger data to identify potential threats and violations of the law complied with statutory restrictions .
With respect to the CBSA’s method of manually targeting flight lists, the monitoring office was unable to assess the reasons for the selection of individual travelers and therefore could not verify the compliance with customs law.
For both methods, the review was also unable to verify that all sorts complied with the regulatory restrictions on the CBSA’s use of passenger data, “that is, their use was intended to detect potential participation in terrorism offenses or serious transnational crimes.”
This is due to a lack of precision in the documentation of the scenario-based targeting program and a lack of information on the basis of flight list targeting triage decisions, the report said.