The irony is sickening: Maher Arar was flagged for "selected security screening" flying from Montreal to Edmonton because Air Canada is using the infamous U.S. "no fly" list on domestic Canadian flights. That would be the list developed by the country that kidnapped Arar in 2002 and sent him to torture in Syria. This appalling incident in June was not our first indication that airlines in Canada had taken to using the notoriously inaccurate and abuse-prone U.S. flight watchlist.

The Association sent a letter to Transport Canada in May, 2006 demanding that it put a stop to the domestic use of the U.S. no-fly list which growing evidence indicates has been impairing the equality and mobility rights of Canadians. As we noted to Transport Canada, complainants include journalists, pastors, librarians and friends of our Association. These are people we are confident represent no security threat of any kind. They are receiving discriminatory treatment and 'guilty' only of transgressions like having unfortunately common names.

Our response from the Ministry of Transport at least acknowledged that the Ministry does not support the use of the U.S. no-fly list in Canada. The Ministry says that it has spoken to Air Canada about their use of the list. And that is the extent of the assistance the Ministry can offer. They say they have no regulatory or legislative authority to make Air Canada stop using the list.

We say it is unacceptable for our government to deny responsibility for domestic flights. What would make the government hold such a meagre view of Canadian sovereignty? If the Minister of Transport were serious about protecting Canadians from arbitrary and discriminatory incursions on their right to mobility, regulatory or legislative authority could be enacted.

In the middle of the last federal election, the RCMP disclosed that it was conducting a criminal investigation into the allegation that there was a governmental leak about income trusts that had allowed insider trading on the securities market. Many people felt that this action by the RCMP influenced the course of the election.

The conduct of the RCMP may have been an attempt to influence partisan politics, it may have been reckless about the foreseeable political consequences, or there could have been a reasonable explanation for the conduct. All the Association could discern, after months of informal communication with the RCMP, was that the disclosure did not appear to have been made in accordance with the RCMP's own informal internal policy.

In mid-July, we called for an investigation by lodging a formal complaint with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP. Police meddling in an election is poison to a democracy. For this reason, we need to hear why there was a leak about the investigation into the alleged leak of financial information.

The Association's police complaint about the in-custody death of Ian Bush in Houston, B.C. had been held in abeyance pending a criminal investigation, an independent review and a coroner's review. We disagreed with the RCMP's decision to suspend our complaint until these various other types of investigations are completed and we requested that the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP review the decision.

The Commissioner found that in holding the matter in abeyance, the RCMP had failed to properly deal with our complaint and referred the complaint back to the RCMP for an appropriate disposition. The RCMP promptly terminated the complaint altogether, without providing us with a substantive explanation for their conduct. Their conduct demonstrates that the RCMP considers civilian oversight in serious cases to be their last priority.

The delays in this matter are also unnecessary and disturbing. Our initial complaint was made on November 7, 2005, a little more than a week after Mr. Bush was fatally shot in the back of the head while in police custody. We received the report from the Commission finding our complaint about the suspension of the police complaint justified on July 5, 2006. The absurd timeframes that complainants in these matters face is only one of the reasons the Association has lobbied for legislative reform that would require all in-custody deaths to automatically be the subject of a civilian review under the RCMP Act.

We received a complaint from a family looking to adopt an adult child. In this case, the adult child was in fact the biological child of the complainant, who had given up the child at birth. They reunited after the child had reached the age of majority, decided that they would like to formalize their family relations and found that the law of British Columbia didn't allow them to because it is a requirement in this province for an adult being adopted to have lived with the adoptive parents prior to their having reached the age of majority (like foster children would).

While the circumstances of the complainant's case are undoubtedly rare, this legislation presumably affects a large number of step-families that would like to effect adult adoptions. Citing the autonomy interest in defining your own family relations, the Association is supporting reform to the adult adoption provisions of the B.C. Adoption Act.

Read BCCLA position paper

Did you know that you can name the BCCLA as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy, or you can assign ownership of an existing policy to the Association? Each of these options has its tax advantages.

Another option, allowing you to keep the policy in your name is the donation of life insurance proceeds. This can be done in several ways. You can name the BCCLA as the beneficiary, name the BCCLA as the contingent beneficiary or name your estate as beneficiary and gift the proceeds to the Association.

If you are considering assigning the BCCLA as beneficiary of a life insurance policy, we strongly recommend obtaining legal advice before doing so. The BCCLA is happy to help arrange for a consultation with one of Vancouver's most prominent tax lawyers. Please feel free to contact Sarah Frew, Director of Development at 604-687-2919 or email sarah@bccla.org and she would be happy to help arrange an appointment or provide you with further information.

Civil Liberties Update is a summary of some of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association's recent work. The Association publishes a newsletter, The Democratic Commitment, an annual report and posts its positions, submissions, legal arguments and news releases at www.bccla.org.

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