News in the last few months has revealed the Vancouver transit authority breaking its ties with the CBSA, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation breaking its ties with the CBSA, NGO's increasing pressure on the police to break their ties with the CBSA, and Lawyers criticizing the CBSA for seemingly arbitrary detentions and manifesting a culture of the presumption of guilt and with no oversight.
More recently the Federal Government has expressed concern for the decision of various provincial government departments breaking their ties to the CBSA and thus weakening its effictiveness.
Presumably the CBSA was originally designed to overlook the presumption of innocence and due process for reasons of efficiency, but with so many innocents getting caught in its web, provinces broke ties now causing the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction of probably many guilty being more able to go undetected in Canada.
It would seem to me that the simplest solution would be for the Federal Government to adopt a law guaranteeing that anyone charged with an offence requiring extradition shall be protected from arbitrary detention, shall have his presumption of innocence protected, and shall be informed of his right to counsel among other things.
Once the Federal government can guarantee the presumption of innocence and due process and protection from arbitrary detention of those believed to be inadmissible to Canada, then maybe provincial governments would be willing to consider re-establishing their ties to the CBSA. Never should a foreign national be arbitrarily detained and extradited without having had so much as a chance to get a fair and impartial hearing just because he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, on mere suspicion of guilt, by simple association, or maybe even because the CBSA officer had an argument with his wife the night before and needs to take it out on someone, anyone.
More recently the Federal Government has expressed concern for the decision of various provincial government departments breaking their ties to the CBSA and thus weakening its effictiveness.
Presumably the CBSA was originally designed to overlook the presumption of innocence and due process for reasons of efficiency, but with so many innocents getting caught in its web, provinces broke ties now causing the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction of probably many guilty being more able to go undetected in Canada.
It would seem to me that the simplest solution would be for the Federal Government to adopt a law guaranteeing that anyone charged with an offence requiring extradition shall be protected from arbitrary detention, shall have his presumption of innocence protected, and shall be informed of his right to counsel among other things.
Once the Federal government can guarantee the presumption of innocence and due process and protection from arbitrary detention of those believed to be inadmissible to Canada, then maybe provincial governments would be willing to consider re-establishing their ties to the CBSA. Never should a foreign national be arbitrarily detained and extradited without having had so much as a chance to get a fair and impartial hearing just because he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, on mere suspicion of guilt, by simple association, or maybe even because the CBSA officer had an argument with his wife the night before and needs to take it out on someone, anyone.