"It has been suggested that the new deal will not compromise privacy any further than is already the case under existing bilateral agreements. This is hardly reassuring. Already, under current regulations, innocent people have been mistakenly added to terror watch lists due to confusion over a shared name or similar address. Some of these people, including Canadian citizens, have found themselves unable to leave the country due to this misidentification, and have suffered personally and professionally as a result. In some cases, they have been able to leave the country, but then not return, leaving them stranded in foreign lands. Some have been detained without charge.
We must do better. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has concurred with the findings of the Federal Commission of Inquiry into the case of Maher Arar: We believe that intelligence agencies and law enforcement must take every listed legal safeguard to ensure they do not wrongly flag an innocent person, and that they do not share, receive, or otherwise use or condone information that has been procured from torture or serious human rights abuses. Such information is not only unreliable, it is illegal and immoral."