Of Unreasonable Searches and Seizures: A Blueprint for a Constitutional Challenge to the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act

Abstract

This thesis scrutinizes the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act [“SoCIS”] through the lens of section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Drawing an epistemological link between search and seizure principles and the domestic exchange of information, I argue that the SoCIS falls short of the safeguards demanded by section 8. By permitting the unremitting disclosure of information, the regime casts too wide a net, and risks the exchange of information about innocent Canadians – not unlike the cases of Maher Arar, Ahmad Elmaati, Muayyed Nureddin, and Abdullaah Almalki. When measured against jurisprudential standards and lessons from commissions of inquiry involving porous information-sharing dynamics, the absence of oversight or accountability in the SoCIS proves disproportionate to its overarching objective. Thus, it cannot be saved by section 1 of the Charter, and should be declared of no force or effect.