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Jeremy
D. Morley
A recently issued (July 2015) Canadian Parliamentary
Report, entitled Alert: Challenges and International Mechanisms to Address
Cross-Border Child Abduction – contains a helpful analysis of Canada’s exit
controls and passport controls. Relevant portions are reprinted below, without
footnotes.
Border
Controls
In cases where an abducted child is entering Canada,
the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is the first point of contact and its
officers can refer the child and parent to secondary examination if they have
suspicions that the child may have been abducted. In addition, CBSA’s Border
Operations Centre is the point of contact for the after-hours operation of the
federal government’s Our Missing Children Program. The program is made up of
several government departments – DFATD, the Department of Justice, Citizenship
and Immigration Canada, CBSA and the RCMP – and its mandate includes
intercepting and recovering missing and abducted children across international
borders.
The Committee was informed that CBSA monitors only
incoming travelers, and does not keep records or have any processes in place
for travelers leaving the country. A number of witnesses felt that the
introduction of exit controls would be beneficial in preventing abducted
children from leaving Canada. However, some witnesses noted that such a system
may be costly, and that such a measure would not assist in situations where a
child has left the country with the permission of the other parent but then is
not returned to Canada. Penelope Lipsack, Legal Services Branch, Ministry of
Justice of British Columbia, estimated that cases of “wrongful retention”
account for approximately 50% of international child abduction cases.
CBSA officials noted that a form of exit control is
currently being introduced as part of the Beyond the Border Action Plan through
the Entry/Exit Initiative for “third-country nationals” (i.e., noncitizens of
Canada or the United States) going to the United States. Calvin Christiansen,
Director General, National Border Operations Centre of the CBSA, described the
program as follows:
We have several phases of entry-exit that have been
implemented over time. We implemented phase 1 of entry-exit on September 30,
2012, which involves a pilot project where we exchange data on third-country
nationals departing from either country ... [As of June 2013], [w]e started
that exchange of information at all … the land border crossings across the
country.
CBSA officials noted that later phases of Beyond the
Border would allow for the same sharing of information with respect to air
departures and possibly marine and rail travel as well. Biographical
information on travellers would be exchanged between the U.S. and Canada.
… In addition, officials noted that
implementation of the next phase would require “legislative and regulatory
amendments to go with it.”
Passport
Controls
Passport Canada is tasked with ensuring that a
child’s passport application is from someone authorized to apply on behalf of
the child, and ascertaining whether the consent or acknowledgement of another
person is required. The Committee heard that the current passport application
process may go some way toward preventing the international abduction of a
child, but will not do so in all cases.
Applications for a passport for children under the
age of 16 must be made by a parent or legal guardian. Officials from Passport
Canada informed the Committee that either parent with joint custody of a child
may apply for a passport for that child. However, officials also noted that
Passport Canada prefers to have both parents sign the application form where
possible, regardless of the custody situation. In rare cases where a parent
claims to be unable to get the signature of the other parent, officials may
request additional documentation to verify that claim.
The Committee heard that the passport application
process is heavily reliant on information provided by the applicant and
disclosure with respect to material information (e.g., court orders). The
Committee was informed that, to protect against fraudulent applications, a
protocol known as “System Lookout” is used as an “internal flagging tool.”
Parents can request that their child’s name be included in the system if they
are concerned that the other parent may seek to have a passport issued without
their knowledge.
Passport Canada is involved in a number of
initiatives related to the challenge of identifying when to issue a child with
a passport. These include starting a task force on children’s issues in 2010 as
an internal initiative, reaching out to other organizations, developing a
resource document for passport officers about how to speak with parents and
standardizing the form for System Lookout files.
According to government officials, System Lookout
flags an application for further examination, but does not necessarily prevent
the issuing of a passport, as long as the necessary requirements are satisfied.
Similarly, a parent may wish to contact the embassy where the other parent is a
national of a country other than Canada to request that no passport be issued
in the child’s name. Again, making such a request does not automatically bar
the issuance of a passport. In addition, children under age 16 may travel to
the United States by land with only a copy of a birth or citizenship
certificate, so a passport would not be required.
The Committee heard that listing in System Lookout
does not prevent a child from travelling on a passport that has already been
issued. Furthermore, the Committee was told that Passport Canada has no
authority to cancel a passport due to fear of an abduction, unless the passport
is determined to have been lost or stolen.
In addition, the Committee heard that the
information in the System Lookout database is not shared with other agencies
such as CBSA or input in CPIC unless the passport is determined to have been
lost or stolen. Officials told the Committee that these limitations on the
cancellation of passports are in place because of concerns about the accuracy
of information in a system that is client reliant, and the fact that the
veracity of parents’ claims cannot be fully ascertained by passport officials.
Once a passport is issued, a court order is required
to restrict the child’s mobility and/or require that the passport be turned
over to a third party, such as a lawyer. If a child does travel on a cancelled
passport, since Canada does not have exit controls, foreign border officials
must be relied upon to verify if the passport is valid and to prevent movement.
As one witness noted, “if that information isn’t verified at the border, then
it doesn’t matter. We’re very reliant upon the excellent work of border
officials around the world to flag those [passports] and identify children when
they're moving across borders.”
