Tiny percentage of travellers had digital devices examined at border

Just over 33,000 travellers have had smartphones, laptops and tablets searched by the Canada Border Services Agency, between 2017 and 2021.

That means only 0.012% of all travellers who were processed at the border had their digital devices examined.

According to a story in Blacklock’s Reporter, searches peaked just prior to a legal challenge that struck random searches as unconstitutional.

“Information is only available, starting from Nov. 1, 2017 which is when the agency started collecting data on digital device examinations,” wrote Border Services Agency staff.

Agents under the Customs Act had treated cellphones and other devices as ordinary goods subject to random searches.

Searches were around 14,313 a year in 2018, just as legal challenges were filed against the practice. 

After the Alberta Court of Appeal in 2020 struck random searches as a breach of the Charter, the number of annual searches declined to 1,794 in 2021.

The Senate last June 20 amended cabinet’s Bill S-7 An Act To Amend The Customs Act that proposed Customs officers be permitted to resume searches of emails, texts, photographs and other smartphone data based on a “reasonable general concern” of criminality. 

A majority of the Senate national security committee rewrote the bill to require that officers must prove “reasonable grounds to suspect” criminality, a higher legal threshold.

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Bill S-7 is pending in the Commons.

The Canada Border Services Agency has on their website full information about such searches. Devices are examined if an agent believes evidence will be found on the device showing border laws have been broken.

Concerns about admissibility or admissibility of your goods, about identity or about failure to comply with Canadian laws or regulations are all reasons why an officer might examine digital devices.