Senator Simons: I have it in front of me. That’s okay.

Hon. Paula Simons: Thank you, Senator Boniface, for taking my question. I have a concern on a civil liberties perspective of the creation of a novel test of “reasonable general concern” because there is no precedent for this in Canadian law. There is no definition of what this means in Canadian law. Under the Customs Act, in order to look at old-fashioned paper mail, an officer must suspect on reasonable grounds. In the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, an enhanced search only comes if the officer believes on reasonable grounds, and the court in the Canfield case suggested a test of reasonable suspicion.

I am perplexed as to why the government felt it necessary to create a completely new standard of reasonable general concern which has no precedent in Canadian law; as I understand it, there is no precedent anywhere in the Commonwealth. I’m worried that might open the door for searches that are more aggressive than they were under the regime of regulations that border agents were using beforehand.