C-2 – The Strong Borders Act – introduces some significant new powers around how we manage our borders.
This is a pretty hefty piece of legislation and getting through it all is a bit tricky while working a full-time job, so in the interest of getting any info out sooner rather than later here’s the first 5 parts. There are a total of 16 parts to this legislation so I’ll try to get more out as soon as possible.
Also with how large legislation like this is I feel our opinion tracker doesn’t really work with a single score for the whole thing. You might agree with some parts but really disagree with others. (Kind of the point of omnibus bills, put in a few good things people want to force them to support things they hate.) I’ll be putting a separate opinion tracker in for each part of this.
You can find Parts 6 to 9 here, 10 to 12 here, and 13 to 16 here.
Part 1 – Customs Act
The first part of C-2 makes changes to the Customs Act to provide more facilities to the Canada Border Services Agency for use in their duties. At the moment anyone that owns a bridge, airport, wharf, etc. used for imports needs to provide the CBSA a place for storing and examining anything being brought into the country. C-2 expands this to facilities for all CBSA operations, not just inspections.
C-2 also gives the CBSA the ability to do full inspections of goods being exported and the facilities they’re being stored in. Currently they’re only allowed to inspect imports.
Part 2 – Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
Part 2 makes changes to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to make it easier for the Minister of Health to temporarily add precursor chemicals for creating fentanyl to the list of controlled substances.
Part 3 – Police Enforcement of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Cannabis Act
Part 3 changes the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Cannabis Act to exempt police from drug-related inchoate offences when they’re undertaking a legal investigation.
For anyone that hasn’t heard the term before, “inchoate offence” is a crime around a crime that hasn’t been committed yet. For example, inciting someone to violence would be an inchoate offence. No violence has happened yet but you trying to get them to commit a violent crime is itself a crime.
At the moment an officer, and anyone working under them, can be made exempt from the regulations around drugs. C-2 will make it so they can also be made exempt from being charged with the crimes of “conspiracy or attempt to commit”, “being an accessory after the fact” or “counselling in relation to” drug-related crimes. So an officer could give advice on how to smuggle drugs into the country to someone planning on doing so and they won’t be charged for it.
Author’s Note
I might be wrong but I get the feeling the police currently aren’t exempt from these crimes because it opens up a lot of opportunity for entrapment. They’ll be able to encourage and assist you in planning drug crimes then arrest you for doing them without a problem.
Part 4 – Canada Post Corporation Act
Part 4 changes the Canada Post Corporation Act to allow the Canada Post to intercept and seize anything in the process of being shipped if any other Act calls for it. Canada Post is not liable for anything that happens as a result of this.
C-2 will also make it so Canada Post is allowed to open letters. Currently letters are the only thing they aren’t allowed to open and inspect.
Part 5 – Oceans Act
Part 5 changes the role of the Coast Guard. Right now the Coast Guard works under the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and is responsible for ship safety, ice clearing, search and rescue, etc. Under C-2 any Minister can be given responsibility for the Coast Guard’s powers and duties, and the Coast Guard will also have more military roles added to their list of duties. This will include security patrols and the collection, analysis, and disclosure of information and intelligence.
Progress of C-2
C-2 is currently waiting for its Second Reading vote.
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Are you working for the government or just completely clueless? The biggest issue is warrantless arrests of citizens based on inchoate offences. They aren’t targeting big players of organized crime, just average citizens. It’s a compliance order regarding freedom of speech especially. Tech Policy Press has released an article explaining exactly what implications are applicable under this law and the legality of Canadian law officials trying to force foreign agencies to comply despite having their own international laws surrounding digital privacy.
The parts that Tech Policy Press covers are further in the legislation. It’s a long one so I haven’t been able to get a full write-up on it done in one go. This is only about a third of the full Bill, as mentioned at the start.
One of the problems I ran into last Session was the length of government Bills made it really hard to maintain my update schedule while trying to keep everything from them in one post. I figured this time around I’ll release it in parts instead of waiting for me to have time to cover everything at once.