Canadian government urged to block data-sharing deal between Thomson Reuters and US ICE | Canada
A Canadian federal opposition party leader is calling on Mark Carney’s government to block the latest data-sharing deal between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Canadian media giant Thomson Reuters.
Avi Lewis, the federal leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), demanded on Tuesday that Ottawa address the contract and further restrict Canadian companies from doing business with ICE, after Canada’s National Watchdog reported the agreement.
“My blood ran cold when I read about this development,” he added in a statement to the Guardian. “The complicity between Canadian companies and ICE should be absolutely illegal.”
Under the $125 million settlement, ICE will pay the technology and content conglomerate for access to the Clear database, which includes property records, social media and geolocation information to detect “voter fraud” and “immigration fraud.” reports.
One proof of purchase Thomson Reuters, obtained by 404 Media, says it is the only firm that allows ICE access to “constant monitoring” of millions of people.
Thomson Reuters’ contracts with ICE date back to 2015, when it began providing U.S. authorities with access to Clear to track people for deportation. Critics have long alleged that the databases were used to facilitate human rights abuses.
But the latest contract is the first to state that Clear’s software will be used to support the Trump administration’s goals of combating so-called “voter fraud.”
In a recently broadcast televised speech, the president repeated false claims about the supposed fallibility of the 2020 US presidential election results; It alleged voter fraud, non-citizen voting, and a number of other misleading or misrepresentations. Election officials from across the political spectrum harshly criticized the speech and reiterated the credibility of U.S. elections.
Thomson Reuters is owned by Woodbridge Company, the holding company of the Thomson family, often described as Canada’s richest family. The media company also owns the Reuters news agency and the Globe and Mail newspaper.
A spokesman for Thomson Reuters said it does not comment on client contracts and referred to a page on the company’s website About clear.
The post states that there are “misunderstandings” regarding the tool and that it is licensed “only to select businesses, law enforcement, and government agencies to help expedite investigative processes in legitimate legal investigations.”
The company emphasizes that “our research solutions are not surveillance tools.”
Lewis said the federal government should deny export permits to companies that sell equipment to ICE and withdraw public subsidies or contracts from any companies with relationships with the agency. In January, the NDP made similar calls following the shooting deaths of two US citizens by ICE in Minneapolis.
“If the Carney government is serious about Canada’s economic independence, it should take action to block this agreement,” Lewis said.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Thomson Reuters contract.
Joel Bakan, a law professor at the University of British Columbia and author of several books on unethical corporate behavior, said Canada has a legal framework that prohibits companies from working with ICE.
“Companies are not allowed to engage with various rogue regimes, authoritarian regimes and certainly hostile regimes,” he said. “It is certainly within the purview of the government, including the Canadian federal government, to impose various restrictions.”
He pointed to Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act, the country’s primary enforcement law, which can give the government the power to restrict trade related to human rights abuses. “As a matter of real policy, I can’t imagine the federal government would use this against the United States, but it’s at least arguable that ICE is involved in these types of violations,” he said.
