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Eavesdropping at airports on hold: Toews

Audiotaping halted during review

By: Mia Rabson

Wednesday, Jun. 20, 2012 at 12:15 PM | Comments: 0

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

John Woods photos / Winnipeg Free Press Ying Ying Liu (left) and Kamal Solaimani say eavesdropping in airports is OK.

OTTAWA -- Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is halting a plan to eavesdrop on passenger conversations at airports and border crossings until the federal privacy commissioner has a chance to review it.

Enlarge Image

Mark Gohmann: 'uncomfortable' (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

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Eric Abrey (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

On the weekend, media reported sections of the Ottawa airport were secretly outfitted with microphones by the Canada Border Services Agency to monitor the conversations of international travellers and airport employees. High-definition video cameras were also installed, replacing older models.

What CBSA could have heard in Winnipeg

Passengers at Richardson International Airport shared their opinions about eavesdropping on conversations at Canadian airports and border crossings:

"It gets into the privacy thing. It's more or less the same as when they put cameras on the street corners -- they're in the same kind of lane there. I don't have anything to hide. As long as you know that it's there, I think it's not really so much an invasion of privacy."

-Eric Abrey

"It doesn't strike me as something that would do anything, kind of pointless. I already feel safe in airports."

-Dale Kozarsky

"I feel like that's kind of invasive. It means they can hear every conversation. It's my information, not public information."

-Danny Birley

"Whatever they feel like will make us safer. If it's for good purposes, I'm fine with it."

-Megan Smithe

"It's not only about terrorists, it's about everyone they're catching, like criminals. I think it's OK because it's for public security."

-Ying Ying Liu

"For me, the government needs for people to understand that this is for their own good, for their own safety. I believe it is a paradise, Canada. To me, it is a paradise. You can see nowhere in the world to be like Canada. But still, we have to be careful, we have to protect."

-Kamal Solaimani

"Yeah, I'd probably be uncomfortable with that. We're already always being watched as it is. This is too much."

-Mark Gohmann

Similar devices were to be installed at other airports and certain land border crossings, however neither the border agency nor Toews' office will say where, including whether the equipment is at the Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg.

A spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Airports Authority did not respond to a call from the Free Press.

Toews defended the practice on Monday, saying it was necessary to detect and prevent illegal smuggling, and privacy rights of "law-abiding Canadians are respected at all times."

He backed down a bit on Tuesday.

"What I can say is that I share the concerns of Canadians regarding the privacy impact of audio recordings, even when it occurs in a restricted area in an airport," Toews said in the House of Commons. "Even though CBSA does respect privacy rights in all of its operations, I have made it clear to CBSA that no audio monitoring is to occur until a privacy impact assessment is submitted and recommendations from the privacy commissioner can be reviewed by the government."

Chantal Bernier, assistant federal privacy commissioner, said the Treasury Board requires government departments to undertake privacy impact assessments when implementing new policies that could affect privacy. The privacy office reviews the assessments and can offer non-binding recommendations.

"We're surprised and we're concerned by seeing that the process has not been followed," Bernier said. "It is a bit presumptuous, isn't it, to install the equipment before they did the privacy impact assessment?"

Bernier added the privacy impact assessment should come before the measures are implemented.

The office first learned of the surveillance plan in August 2011 in a meeting with border agency officials.

"We expressed concern at the time," but never heard about the plan again until Saturday's report, Bernier said.

The border agency, however, has a different interpretation of those events.

"The CBSA consulted the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on the development of the CBSA audio and video monitoring and recording policy and are working forward to implement all recommendations," agency spokesman Luc Nadon said in a written statement.

Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin said recording private conversations in the name of security is frightening.

"The Conservatives have it backwards," he said. "Citizens have an absolute right to know what their government is doing, but government has a very limited right to know what we citizens are doing and/or saying. This is truly Orwellian police-state stuff, and it scares me that the Harperites think it's OK to erase our right to privacy in such a cavalier way."

Last winter, Toews introduced legislation that would have given the government power to force Internet service providers to give up information on their clients, sparking a massive outcry. The government has not debated the legislation, which may die before second reading.

-- with files from Postmedia News

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

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