Thank you, Mr. Motz.
As I indicated in my initial submission, I think that the government and the opposition should start to take a look at redoing the Customs Act. It is a piece of legislation that is significantly outdated with respect to the ability to review digital technology.
When you speak about balancing individual rights versus state interests, obviously we support measures that are going to protect Canada and provide us with a sense of greater security and safety. That said, all of us carry digital devices, including everybody who's in this committee. You all carry laptops. They contain the most sensitive information that you can imagine, and the Supreme Court has said that there can be no greater invasion of privacy than going through someone's digital device or laptop. Customs officers and CBSA officers who are there trying to protect the border need some guidance with respect to how far they can go in terms of searching someone's digital device. Right now, they have no guidance.
The legislation, particularly under section 99, essentially speaks to an era when we would have our luggage searched. Second, we would have our personal effects searched, and third, we would have our body searched as the suspicion level rose. Digital devices, however, are a whole different world, and we need the legislation to start catching up with the technology.
If you don't do that, I guarantee that there are going to be constitutional challenges to that legislation when individuals coming back have their devices searched. I suspect that the Supreme Court is going to say that there has to be a legal threshold there, and in the absence of that, you have a constitutional violation.
What's the appropriate threshold? You could start with as low as a reasonable suspicion, which is not very hard for a CBSA officer to satisfy. Essentially, they just have to articulate some grounds as to why they think the person is suspicious. A reasonable grounds threshold would be better, and even that's not very hard to satisfy. I know, sir, that from your policing background, you would be familiar with both of those thresholds.