Law Allowing Phone, Laptop Search at Borders Unconstitutional, Ontario Court Rules

A law that allows border agents to search electric devices, including computers and phones, violates Canadians’ charter rights, Ontario’s top court has ruled, telling Parliament it needs to rewrite the law in six months. In an Aug. 9 court decision, justices Michael Tulloch, Jonathon George, and Patrick Monahan said that the Canadian Charter “guarantees everyone the right to be secure against unreasonable searches.” The decision says the Customs Act “offends” that right, as it allows border agents to search “some of the most private information imaginable” based merely on suspicion. “I conclude that the law infringes s. 8 of the Charter and is unconstitutional,” Tulloch wrote in the decision, noting that the Crown failed to show that the law’s low requirement to justify a search was necessary, because a higher threshold is already in place for similar situations....