Adams: Why is the Trump campaign getting involved in the gender wars? They’re reading the room

2024/08/20 Leave a comment

Contrast between Canada and USA with respect to gender always interesting:

…The next few months will reveal whether an openly patriarchal appeal to U.S. voters is a winning move in America in 2024. It’s not a slam dunk: some Americans who believe Dad should be on top may nonetheless be put off by some of the harder edges of the conservative agenda. But while the U.S.’s election result will inevitably influence Canada, Canadian politicians should be careful about borrowing from the gender wars chapter of the U.S. playbook. The underlying values landscape in Canada is marked by more common ground, especially on social issues. Canadian leaders who aspire to be the boss in the House are wise to be circumspect about who’s on top (if anyone) in our households.

Source: Why is the Trump campaign getting involved in the gender wars? They’re reading the room

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ICYMI: Quebec demands federal quota system to relocate asylum seekers to other provinces

2024/08/20 Leave a comment

Of note:

Quebec is calling on Ottawa to introduce a nationwide quota system to evenly distribute asylum seekers across Canada.

In a letter sent to federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller on July 22, Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette recommended that Ottawa set quotas for provinces to receive asylum seekers based on their demographic weight, their capacity to house newcomers as well as their “historic effort” to welcome them.    

The story was first reported by the Journal de Québec.

Fréchette met Thursday with Miller as part of a regular committee meeting to discuss redistribution options, confirmed Miller’s director of communications Aissa Diop.

The immigration ministers of Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia also attended, she said.

In July, at the Council of the Federation in Halifax, the provinces called for a “fair distribution” of asylum seekers and demanded that Ottawa consider each province and territories’ resources to support them.

Quebec Premier François Legault has often referred to the influx of asylum seekers in the province as a “national emergency,” saying Quebec no longer has the means to integrate more non-permanent residents.

The day Ottawa pledged $750 million to assist Quebec in supporting newcomers, Legault attributed “100 per cent of the housing problem” in the province to the increase in non-permanent residents.

As of June 19, Quebec reported 597,140 non-permanent residents living in the province. Of that sum, 189,962 were asylum seekers — an amount that represents a little more than half of the total number of asylum seekers in Canada (363,312), according to Quebec’s Immigration Ministry.

However, Ottawa contests those numbers.

Diop would not comment directly on Quebec’s requests in the letter but said a redistribution model for asylum seekers would have incentives for those who support it and disincentives for those who don’t. She would not provide details on Ottawa’s intentions.

“We’re not going to send a message to provinces and territories through the media,” she said. “We need to figure out how to best amalgamate all of their asks and come to a general proposal that would suit everyone.”

She noted the federal government recognizes Quebec and Ontario are bearing the brunt of the increase in asylum seekers.

Limiting work permits provincially

In an effort to ensure asylum seekers go to their assigned location, Fréchette is urging the federal government to restrict their work permits by province.

The restriction would apply until the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada renders a decision on the refugee claim.

The letter also asks Ottawa to relocate asylum seekers to provinces and territories based on factors including their language skills and whether they have relatives living in a given province.

“This system would make it possible to welcome asylum seekers with dignity and ensure that they can contribute to the economic vitality of all regions of Canada,” the letter said.

Creating a countrywide network would alleviate the pressure experienced by Quebec and Ontario — provinces that received a large number of asylum seekers — and prevent non-permanent residents from “systematically heading toward the metropolitan regions of Montreal and Toronto,” the minister argues.

If an asylum seeker were to settle in a different area than the one the federal government assigned, the person would have to assume all accommodation costs upon their arrival, the letter says.

To incentivize provinces to follow the system, Quebec suggests that Ottawa create a new federal transfer tied to an information-sharing system that would help offset some of the costs of services for asylum seekers.

The letter also emphasizes Quebec’s repeated demand for Ottawa to tighten visa requirements.

It says 17,490 asylum claims were filed in the province between Jan. 1 and March 31. Nearly half of them (8,070) were filed by claimants who entered Canada with a visitor visa

Most people seeking asylum in Quebec are from India and Bangladesh, according to the province.

Source: Quebec demands federal quota system to relocate asylum seekers to other provinces

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Are there “third rail” issues in Canadian politics?

2024/08/19 Leave a comment

Interesting oversight in not including immigration as a “third rail.” Personally, don’t believe it is as long as discussion focuses on the impact of current levels on housing, healthcare and infrastructure, all issues that face immigrants and non-immigrants alike. Perhaps the lack of its inclusion is in itself a good sign:

In Canadian politics, certain policy issues act as “third rails”—topics so charged that even touching them can have severe political consequences. To better understand these dynamics, we recently conducted a national survey asking Canadians how a range of policy ideas would influence their voting decisions. The goal was to identify which policies are likely to attract or repel voters, regardless of their stance on other issues.

We tested a wide array of ideas, including raising taxes on the richest 1% of Canadians, making public transit free in every city, offering free university and college education, eliminating the federal carbon tax, forcing religious organizations to pay taxes, and abolishing the monarchy to establish a republic. 

Other tested ideas included eliminating all government funding to the CBC, expanding the use of nuclear energy, bringing back the death penalty, allowing people to pay for most healthcare procedures, adding new taxes on sugary beverages, abolishing official bilingualism, taxing profits from the sale of primary residences, criminalizing abortion, introducing mandatory military service for those aged 18 to 20, raising the eligibility age for retirement benefits like CPP and OAS, and legalizing all drugs, including hard drugs like heroin and cocaine.

Source: Are there “third rail” issues in Canadian politics?

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Explaining immigration casework in federal Members of Parliament’s district offices in Canada

2024/08/19 Leave a comment

Interesting and encouraging study, indicating that casework reflects riding demographics, not political affiliation:

In Canada, a majority of federal constituency offices deal primarily with immigration files. The few qualitative studies on the subject show that the resources dedicated to these files and the type of work carried out on the immigration files handled vary between offices, thus contributing to disparities in service between federal electoral districts. How can such variation be explained? Based on the quantitative analysis of unpublished administrative data, this article first highlights the diversity of files handled by constituency offices, as well as the types of intervention carried out by constituency assistants. It then aims to explain the variations in case processing according to the type of case and the volume of requests handled. Studies of constituentsʼ files received and processed at constituency office level have argued that the political ideology, gender and ethnicity of the deputy as well as the demographics of the constituency are explanatory factors. This analysis shows that in the case of immigration files, constituency demography is the most important factor, while the MP’s political affiliation plays a very limited role. These results shed new light on the factors involved in the processing of immigration cases at constituency level, and add nuance to previous, mainly qualitative analyses. Our results also contribute to understanding the work of constituency offices for constituents, which appears to be far less partisan than in other countries where similar offices exist.

Source: Explaining immigration casework in federal Members of Parliament’s district offices in Canada




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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s call to ‘cherish’ multiculturalism as Gaza refugee fight drags on

2024/08/19 Leave a comment

Some interesting numbers from Australia, highlighting greater intake than Canada (as of July 24, 434 approved, 189 in Canada:). But there has been little political debate in Canada over those coming from Gaza unlike in Australia:

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has continued to back ASIO and Australia’s security measures as a political bunfight over refugees fleeing to Australia from ravaged Gaza continues.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton this week called for a ban on refugees from Gaza, claiming adequate vetting was not taking place.

“Peter Dutton plays politics at every opportunity,” Albanese said, during a visit to the Ferragosto festival of Italian culture in Sydney’s inner west today.

“It’s important that we value our multiculturalism, we celebrate it, and we cherish it.”

Australia has granted more than 2600 visas to Palestinians, and rejected a further 4600, since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, according to Senate Estimates from May.

Of those, only about 1300 have arrived and remain in Australia.

And with the Gaza borders closed, it’s unlikely many more will turn up in the near future.

The opposition is calling for checks on those refugees already here, along with compulsory face to face interviews with future applicants.

“We’re prepared to show that compassion but we want to make sure when they come here they can continue to enjoy that lifestyle we have,” Nationals leader David Littleproud said.

No specific offences or crimes committed by Gaza refugees have been mentioned.

But ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess’s declaration that “rhetorical” support for Hamas would not be an automatic bar to entry to Australia has been seized upon as a political talking point.

Source: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s call to ‘cherish’ multiculturalism as Gaza refugee fight drags on

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Où sont passées les clés de notre système d’immigration ?

2024/08/19 Leave a comment

Good article in La Presse (translation below):

Aujourd’hui, le Canada perd la face sur la scène internationale.

La mécanique qui permet aux employeurs canadiens de faire venir des travailleurs étrangers à bas salaire crée un « terreau fertile » pour l’esclavage contemporain, déplorait le rapporteur spécial l’ONU, Tomoya Obokata, cette semaine1.

Le constat est dur. Mais il ne révèle qu’une partie du problème. En fait, le Canada a perdu le contrôle de l’immigration temporaire.

Au fil des ans, Ottawa comme Québec ont laissé émerger un système d’immigration à deux vitesses, dans la plus grande hypocrisie.

Devant les projecteurs, Québec impose des plafonds chiffrés et des critères précis pour l’immigration permanente. « En prendre moins, mais en prendre soin », clamait la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) quand elle a été élue pour la première fois. 

Mais en coulisses, le gouvernement laisse entrer sans compter les résidents non permanents qui ont été trois fois plus nombreux à arriver au Québec (174 000) que les permanents (52 800), en 2023.

Devant les micros, Québec fait grand cas de l’augmentation des demandeurs d’asile. Il est vrai que la province fait plus que sa part et on se réjouit de voir Ottawa réfléchir à un plan pour mieux répartir l’effort à travers le pays. Mais Québec se garde bien de dire que la croissance dans les autres catégories de résidents non permanents (étudiants, travailleurs temporaires) a été encore plus forte (+44 %) que celle des demandeurs d’asile (+37 %) depuis un an.

Cela fait l’affaire des cégeps et universités sous-financés par l’État, qui ont trouvé là un filon pour regarnir leurs coffres et maintenir en vie des programmes en manque d’étudiants locaux. Cela fait aussi le bonheur des employeurs, qui veulent des bras pour accomplir des tâches ingrates au salaire minimum.

Mais pour l’ensemble de la société, c’est contre-productif.

Qu’à cela ne tienne, Québec et Ottawa ont accordé une série d’assouplissements, sans considérer leur effet cumulatif, qui a fait exploser l’immigration temporaire depuis 2015.

Ils ont en quelque sorte donné les clés de notre système d’immigration aux établissements d’enseignement et aux employeurs qui déterminent le nombre et le profil des étrangers qui arrivent chez nous, selon leurs besoins à eux.

Cela a fait dévier le système d’immigration de son objectif d’attirer des travailleurs qualifiés. Et c’est ainsi qu’on se retrouve avec un niveau de vie à la baisse, comme en témoigne le PIB par habitant, qui descend depuis plusieurs trimestres.

Le ministre fédéral de l’Immigration essaie maintenant de remettre le dentifrice dans le tube. En mars, Marc Miller a annoncé son intention de réduire d’environ 20 %, d’ici trois ans, le nombre d’immigrants temporaires qui atteint 2,8 millions au Canada.

Ce ne sera pas simple.

Va-t-on leur montrer la porte ? Il y a un risque que les non-résidents qui perdent leur permis restent au Canada quand même, sans papiers, un statut qui peut mener à des abus encore pires. Et cela ne réduirait pas le nombre d’étrangers sur le sol canadien… à moins de mettre en place un système de déportation à l’américaine. Franchement, ça ne serait pas chic.

Va-t-on leur accorder la résidence permanente en vrac ? Cela ferait en sorte que des immigrants temporaires qui n’ont pas le meilleur profil passeraient devant les candidats plus qualifiés. Pas fort. 

Remarquez, on pourrait aussi relever les plafonds d’immigration permanente pour leur faire de la place. Mais dans ce cas, on ne réduirait pas réellement la croissance de la population.

On le voit, il n’y a pas de solution magique pour diminuer rapidement le nombre de non-résidants déjà au Canada.

Voilà pourquoi il est crucial d’agir en amont, en resserrant les critères d’immigration temporaire.

Auparavant, les demandes d’immigration permanente étaient acheminées de l’étranger. Quand les immigrants étaient acceptés au Canada, ils entraient par la grande porte, avec des services structurés. 

Désormais, les étudiants et les travailleurs arrivent avec un statut temporaire, dans l’espoir de rester à long terme. On ne peut plus continuer avec ce système à deux étapes qui crée des frustrations et des goulots d’étranglement.

Il est crucial de mieux arrimer les immigrations temporaire et permanente, qui sont des vases communicants.

Il est aussi nécessaire de sevrer graduellement les employeurs de la main-d’œuvre étrangère à bas coût, une solution de dernier recours. C’est une chose de recruter des travailleurs saisonniers dans le secteur agricole. C’en est une autre quand le secteur manufacturier, la restauration ou le commerce de détail pourvoient avec des immigrants temporaires… des postes permanents.

Le recours trop facile à la main-d’œuvre bon marché peut avoir l’effet pervers de freiner les investissements en technologie et en machinerie qui permettraient d’améliorer la productivité du Québec, souligne un rapport de l’Institut du Québec2.

Il est temps de donner un bon tour de vis à l’immigration temporaire.

Québec, qui a favorisé abondamment le recours aux immigrants à bas salaire, a le devoir de présenter une vision d’ensemble, claire et logique. Il ne suffit pas d’attendre les mesures d’Ottawa pour ensuite crier à la victime en réclamant les pleins pouvoirs.

Source: Où sont passées les clés de notre système d’immigration ?

Today, Canada is losing face on the international scene.

The mechanism that allows Canadian employers to bring in low-wage foreign workers creates a “fertile breeding ground” for contemporary slavery, lamented the UN Special Rapporteur, Tomoya Obokata, this week1.

The observation is hard. But it only reveals part of the problem. In fact, Canada has lost control of temporary immigration.

Over the years, both Ottawa and Quebec City have allowed a two-speed immigration system to emerge, in the greatest hypocrisy.

In the spotlight, Quebec City imposes numerical ceilings and precise criteria for permanent immigration. “Take less, but take care of it,” said the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) when it was first elected.

But behind the scenes, the government lets in without counting non-permanent residents who were three times more likely to arrive in Quebec (174,000) than permanent residents (52,800), in 2023.

In front of the microphones, Quebec City makes a big case for the increase in asylum seekers. It is true that the province is doing more than its part and we are delighted to see Ottawa thinking about a plan to better distribute the effort across the country. But Quebec is careful not to say that growth in other categories of non-permanent residents (students, temporary workers) has been even stronger (+44%) than that of asylum seekers (+37%) over the past year.

This is the case of CEgeps and universities underfunded by the state, who have found there a vein to replenish their chests and keep programs alive in need of local students. It also makes employers happy, who want arms to perform ungrateful tasks at the minimum wage.

But for society as a whole, it is counterproductive.

Never mind, Quebec and Ottawa have granted a series of relaxations, without considering their cumulative effect, which has exploded temporary immigration since 2015.

They have somehow given the keys to our immigration system to educational institutions and employers who determine the number and profile of foreigners who arrive with us, according to their needs.

This has diverted the immigration system from its objective of attracting skilled workers. And this is how we find ourselves with a declining standard of living, as evidenced by GDP per capita, which has been falling for several quarters.

The Federal Minister of Immigration is now trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. In March, Marc Miller announced his intention to reduce by about 20%, within three years, the number of temporary immigrants to reach 2.8 million in Canada.

It won’t be easy.

Will we show them the door? There is a risk that non-residents who lose their license will still remain in Canada, without papers, a status that can lead to even worse abuses. And this would not reduce the number of foreigners on Canadian soil… unless an American-style deportation system is set up. Frankly, it wouldn’t be chic.

Will they be granted permanent residence in bulk? This would ensure that temporary immigrants who do not have the best profile would pass in front of more qualified candidates. Not strong.

Note, we could also raise the permanent immigration ceilings to make room for them. But in this case, population growth would not really be reduced.

As we can see, there is no magic solution to quickly reduce the number of non-residents already in Canada.

This is why it is crucial to act upstream, tightening the criteria for temporary immigration.

Previously, permanent immigration applications were sent from abroad. When immigrants were accepted into Canada, they entered through the big door, with structured services.

From now on, students and workers arrive with a temporary status, in the hope of staying in the long term. We can no longer continue with this two-step system that creates frustrations and bottlenecks.

It is crucial to better stick up temporary and permanent immigration, which are communicating vessels.

It is also necessary to gradually wean employers of low-cost foreign labor, a solution of last resort. It is one thing to recruit seasonal workers in the agricultural sector. It is another when the manufacturing sector, catering or retail supply temporary immigrants… permanent positions.

The too easy use of cheap labor can have the perverse effect of slowing down investments in technology and machinery that would improve Quebec’s productivity, says a report from the Institut du Québec2.

It’s time to give a good turn of the screw to temporary immigration.

Quebec, which has widely favored the use of low-wage immigrants, has a duty to present an overall, clear and logical vision. It is not enough to wait for Ottawa’s measures and then shout to the victim by demanding full powers.

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Desai: Canada’s poor relations with India underscore short-term thinking and failures

2024/08/19 Leave a comment

Good commentary on Canada-India relations and international students:

…Short-sightedness on student visas 

Relations have also been strained over international students in Canada – the majority of whom come from India. 

Earlier this year, the Indian High Commissioner to Canada warned that Indian students granted visas to study in Canada are often “duped” by post-secondary institutions, sometimes with tragic consequences. 

Further, the CBC found that the types of programs to which foreign students are being steered do not align with our labour market needs. 

This has foundational roots in Canada’s inability to co-ordinate policies at all levels of government and with other key stakeholders. 

International students have historically buoyed Canada’s economy. Their higher fees solidified the balance sheets of many post-secondary institutions and they filled labour market needs, especially in value-add roles. 

The 2008 decision allowing international students to apply for permanent residency was rational, given Canada’s demographic challenges in the context of a highly competitive global economy for top talent.

But, misalignment between the provincial and federal governments has led to disastrous results. 

The provinces – responsible for accrediting post-secondary institutions – saw the short-term economic benefits of international students and began rubber-stamping the approval of questionable schools. This essentially created a loophole for young foreigners to access Canadian permanent residency. 

The federal government – responsible for immigration – did not study the implications of these provincial decisions and aggressively increased their target numbers, especially for student visas, despite the lack of options for both quality education and short-term housing, which created social friction. 

The ongoing lack of alignment to long-term labour market needs puts the broader system and our economy at risk. 

These diplomatic, immigration and intergovernmental policy failures have had implications for Canadian businesses looking to diversify their export markets, especially to India which represents a large and growing market with increasing demand for our goods and services. 

They have also impacted the number of Indians considering emigrating, especially those whom Canada and other countries dependent on immigration for economic growth most covet – students, entrepreneurs and professionals. …

Source: Canada’s poor relations with India underscore short-term thinking and failures

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John Ivison: How do the Liberals fix skyrocketing immigration? By lowering the entry standards

2024/08/17 Leave a comment

Beyond the header and the analysis, there is a need for a number of lower-skilled immigrants, both temporary and permanent. The question revolves around the level and the percentage of all immigrants and of course, many family class and refugees already provide a source of lower skilled levels, as does the Provincial Nominee Program in some cases.

Hopefully, the annual immigration plan will provide some clarity and not result in any further deskilling of economic immigrants as Skuterud fears.

But all too true about the aversion of the government to deport visa overstayers and undocumented migrants, noting correctly that “every single one has the potential to be a front-page Toronto Star sob story.”

…But the growth in college-level foreign student enrolments and the expansion of the low wage stream of temporary workers mean there are many migrants who would not meet the requirements of the skills-based points system.

Ottawa has now revealed its solution — that from this fall, it will create a new economic class of permanent residency candidates for people with high school education or less, who would not otherwise have qualified to stay.

Mikal Skuterud, a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo, said this is a first for Canada. He said he believes the measure is, at least in part, a “release valve” to address the bulging population of visa overstayers.

“Many of these non-permanent residents will never obtain skilled jobs and the current economic class selection system makes it difficult to prioritize applicants working in less-skilled jobs over high-skilled applicants. That’s the trade-off being made to avoid a growing undocumented population,” he said.

It is not clear yet how many of the 300,000 slots allocated for economic immigrants in 2025 will be filled from the new stream, but every one that is will be at the expense of a higher qualified person applying from abroad and going through the Comprehensive Ranking skills-based points system that has been the backbone of Canada’s successful immigration policy.

OECD data from 2021 showed that Canada was by far the most successful of its peers in picking immigrants with high levels of education — more than 70 per cent — compared to just 20 per cent with medium (high school level) education. That could soon change.

As Skuterud notes, there are going to be many frustrated foreign computer science graduates from Canada’s top universities who find their chances of coming to Canada permanently are now much reduced. “That’s not good if we’re genuinely concerned about labour productivity in this country,” he said.

The Immigration Department said no information is available on numbers or a timeline because “this initiative is at the proposal stage, with no certainty of being implemented.” But it is hard to see what else the government can do.

Ottawa obviously has no stomach to dramatically increase outflows of undocumented immigrants — deportations reached 16,205 in 2023 and every single one has the potential to be a front-page Toronto Star sob story.

The Liberals have already cut student visas by 35 per cent and limited the percentage of any given workforce that can be made up of low-wage foreign workers to 20 per cent from 30.

But these measures will take time to work — most students are here on multi-year visas and are eligible for a three-year work permit after graduation.

Against that background, turning temporary workers and students into permanent residents looks like a work of political genius.

But at a stroke, it undermines the integrity of a skills-based immigration system; reduces Canada’s ability to attract the best and brightest; and, rewards those who have overstayed their visa by providing them with an option to permanent residency.

“The deskilling of Canadian economic immigration continues,” said Skuterud.

No wonder the public is losing confidence.

Source: John Ivison: How do the Liberals fix skyrocketing immigration? By lowering the entry standards

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Keller: The temporary foreign worker program is a scam, and almost everyone is in on it

2024/08/17 Leave a comment

More from Keller:

…The Trudeau government appears to have finally grasped that handing out an unlimited number of temporary visas, leading to 2.8 million temporary residents, far outstrips the capacity of the permanent immigration system, even after doubling the immigration quota to 500,000 a year. That quota includes refugees, economic immigrants and family reunifications from overseas, leaving just half a million spots or so each year to accommodate the 2.8 million temporary residents already in Canada.

The only way out, as I wrote last week, is to press rewind.

The Trudeau government turned student visas into an alternative low-wage job scheme by allowing students to work an unlimited number of hours while in school. It’s time to go back to the way things used to be: foreign students should not be allowed to work off campus. Postgraduate work visas should be restricted to high-quality graduates in high-wage fields.

And with the exception of seasonal farm work, only jobs paying at least 150 per cent of the median wage, or more than $110,000 a year, should be eligible for temporary visas

Business lobbyists will scream, but voters will cheer.

Source: The temporary foreign worker program is a scam, and almost everyone is in on it

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CBSA to use facial recognition app for people facing deportation: documents

2024/08/17 Leave a comment

Inevitable given the numbers and the need for better enforcement, despite some of the privacy and tech issues. The issue of the app and algorithms being protected by trade secrets is also inevitable as long as CBSA has control over the underlying criteria used by the algorithms; if these were open, people would be able to game the system:

The Canada Border Services Agency plans to implement an app that uses facial recognition technology to keep track of people who have been ordered to be deported from the country.

The mobile reporting app would use biometrics to confirm a person’s identity and record their location data when they use the app to check in. Documents obtained through access-to-information indicate that the CBSA has proposed such an app as far back as 2021.

A spokesperson confirmed that an app called ReportIn will be launched this fall.

Experts are flagging numerous concerns, questioning the validity of user consent and potential secrecy around how the technology makes its decisions.

Each year, about 2,000 people who have been ordered to leave the country fail to show up, meaning the CBSA “must spend considerable resources investigating, locating and in some cases detaining these clients,” says a 2021 document.

The agency pitched a smartphone app as an “ideal solution.”

Getting regular updates through the app on a person’s “residential address, employment, family status, among other things, will allow the CBSA to have relevant information that can be used to contact and monitor the client for any early indicators of non-compliance,” it said.

“Additionally, given the automation, it is more likely that the client will feel engaged and will recognize the level of visibility the CBSA has on their case.”

Plus, the document noted: “If a client fails to appear for removal, the information gathered through the app will provide good investigative leads for locating the client.”

An algorithmic impact assessment for the project — not yet posted on the federal government’s website — said biometric voice technology the CBSA tried using was being phased out due to “failing technology,” and it developed the ReportIn app to replace it.

It said a person’s “facial biometrics and location, provided by sensors and/or the GPS in the mobile device/smartphone” are recorded through the ReportIn app and then sent to the CBSA’s back-end system.

Once people submit photos, a “facial comparison algorithm” will generate a similarity score to a reference photo.

If the system doesn’t confirm a facial match, it triggers a process for officers to investigate the case.

“The individuals’ location is also collected every time they report and if the individual fails to comply with their conditions,” it said. The document noted individuals will not be “constantly tracked.”

The app uses technology from Amazon Web Services. That’s a choice that grabbed the attention of Brenda McPhail, the director of executive education in McMaster University’s public policy in digital society program.

She said while many facial recognition companies submit their algorithms for testing to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Amazon has never voluntarily done so.

An Amazon Web Services spokesperson said its Amazon Rekognition technology is “tested extensively — including by third parties like Credo AI, a company that specializes in Responsible AI, and iBeta Quality Assurance.”

The spokesperson added that Amazon Rekognition is a “large-scale cloud-based system and therefore not downloadable as described in the NIST participation guidance.”

“That is why our Rekognition Face Liveness was instead submitted for testing against industry standards to iBeta Lab,” which is accredited by the institute as an independent test lab, the spokesperson said.

The CBSA document says the algorithm used will be a trade secret. In a situation that could have life-changing consequences, McPhail asked whether it’s “appropriate to use a tool that is protected by trade secrets or proprietary secrets and that denies people the right to understand how decisions about them are truly being made.”

Kristen Thomasen, an associate professor and chair in law, robotics and society at the University of Windsor, said the reference to trade secrets is a signal there could be legal impediments blocking information about the system.

There’s been concern for years about people who are subject to errors in systems being legally prohibited from getting more information because of intellectual property protections, she explained.

CBSA spokesperson Maria Ladouceur said the agency “developed this smartphone app to allow foreign nationals and permanent residents subject to immigration enforcement conditions to report without coming in-person to a CBSA office.”

She said the agency “worked in close consultation” with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on the app. “Enrolment in ReportIn will be voluntary, and users will need to consent to both using the app, and the use of their likeness to verify their identity.”

Petra Molnar, the associate director of York University’s refugee law lab, said there is a power imbalance between the agency implementing the app and the people on the receiving end.

“Can a person really, truly consent in this situation where there is a vast power differential?”

If an individual doesn’t consent to participate, they can report in-person as an alternative, Ladouceur said.

Thomasen also cautioned there is a risk of errors with facial recognition technology, and that risk is higher for racialized individuals and people with darker skin.

Molnar said it’s “very troubling that there is basically no discussion of … human rights impacts in the documents.”

The CBSA spokesperson said Credo AI reviewed the software for bias against demographic groups, and found a 99.9 per cent facial match rate across six different demographic groups, adding the app “will be continuously tested after launch to assess accuracy and performance.”

Source: CBSA to use facial recognition app for people facing deportation: documents



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