Citizenship and Immigration Canada Begins Biometrics Field Trial

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), in partnership with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), began a six-month operational Biometrics Field Trial on October 19, 2006. This limited field trial is taking place at two visa offices abroad (Hong Kong and Seattle), and at the following locations in Canada: the Vancouver International Airport, the Douglas/Pacific Highway land ports of entry, and the Etobicoke refugee processing centre.

The Field Trial involves the introduction of fingerprint and facial recognition technologies to the processing of temporary resident visa applicants (students, workers and visitors) and refugee claimants. The Field Trial will test the impact of these technologies on CIC and CBSA operations, as well as evaluate their usefulness in detecting fraud and facilitating legitimate travel. The Field Trial will also help CIC assess the merits of making significant technology investments to gather and verify biometric data at visa offices and ports of entry. Results of the Field Trial will be published in the fall of 2007.

U.S. to put high-tech towers along borders: report. The Associated Press

Boeing Co. will be awarded a government contract worth $80-million US to provide new high-tech ways to catch illegal immigrants trying to cross land borders into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, a congressional aide said. The Department of Homeland Security was expected to announce as early as Wednesday the contract to help secure the borders, which reportedly focuses on a network of high-tech guard towers, cameras and motion
detectors.

» click here to continue reading

Star Wars at the border? U.S. officials to announce new security contract. Sep 18, 2006. Canadian Press: BETH GORHAM

WASHINGTON (CP) – Few seriously expect Americans to build a security wall along the Canada-U.S. border. But the boundary could still look a lot different in three or four years. U.S. officials have been considering a dizzying array of high-technology surveillance toys to patrol the vast area, creating a virtual barrier. And they’ll announce as soon as Thursday which one of five competing military contractors will help them monitor gaps between border crossings. It’s a multibillion-dollar project that could result in a string of towers or skies full of unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, planes, helicopters or
blimps.

» click here to continue reading

“SELLING SECURITY”

A public forum with films and speakers to discuss the climate of fear, racism, repression of civil liberties, and war-making in the wake of the recent arrests of 17 young Muslim men. A critical perspective, rooted in the historic and current reality about Canadian domestic and foreign policy, is necessary so join us for speakers, films, and discussion.

THURSDAY JULY 20TH AT 6:00 PM
ROOM 2270, SFU HARBOUR CENTER, 515 WEST HASTINGS
For more information, call 778-552-2099 or email noii-van at resist.ca

» click here to continue reading

Statement on Toronto Anti-Terror Arrests 

No One is Illegal-Vancouver is an anti-colonial grassroots movement in full confrontation with Canadian colonial border policies, denouncing and taking action to combat racial profiling of immigrants and refugees, detention and deportation policies, and wage-slave conditions of migrant workers and nonstatus people. In response to the recent arrests of seventeen young men in Toronto, we would like to emphasize the following points: 

» click here to continue reading