The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) has broad police powers but there is no independent oversight mechanism to handle complaints as there is for other police forces and agencies in Canada. As it now stands, complaints are handled internally.
Recourse for ‘very vulnerable people’
The CBSA manages the people and goods going in and out of the country, and it has a mandate to detain and investigate non-citizens. That includes permanent residents in Canada, refugee claimants. “These are, in many cases, very vulnerable people,” says Mitchell Goldberg, president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. “They’re often terrified of even the thought of making a complaint against a CBSA officer to another CBSA officer.”
There are stunning examples which illustrate the “urgent” need for independent oversight of the CBSA, according to the BC Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.
A death in detention raises questions
In December a Mexican woman, Lucia Vega Jimenez, was found hanging in a shower stall at a CBSA detention center in the west coast city of Vancouver. She died in hospital a week later, but no information was made public until a month later.
CBSA officers have shared information about refugee claimants with people in their country of origin, potentially putting them or their family members in danger. There is evidence that a document from a Sri Lankan man alleging he was tortured may have been given to Sri Lankan authorities, again possibly putting him and his family at risk.
In 2006 a national inquiry recommended that an outside body be set up to review the duties of the CBSA. The groups say it is time to end seven years of inaction.
‘Enormous powers’ require oversight
“CBSA is not any worse or any better than any other agency or any civilian police force,” says Goldberg. “But it is a police force. It has enormous powers and therefore there needs to be an independent oversight—some kind of agency that’s responsible to process and respond to complaints made by individuals who have dealt with the Canadian Border Services Agency.”
‘Lives in the balance’
Civil rights groups and refugee advocates have been concerned about this lack of oversight for many years, says Goldberg. “It’s really important, it’s just too urgent, people’s lives are in the balance. There needs to be accountability, there needs to be transparency, there needs to be the rule of law. The rule of law needs to apply to every group with police powers in Canada.”
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