The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says the federal government has done nothing to implement a recommendation from the Arar inquiry that an outside body review the national security duties of the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA. The association's executive director, Josh Paterson, said he's written the federal public safety minister asking the government to go even further, creating an independent body to monitor all areas in which the agency acts like a police force. "Despite the broad police powers given to CBSA, there is no independent oversight of the activities of their officers," Paterson told a news conference Wednesday in Vancouver, speaking alongside groups that advocate for refugees. The Arar inquiry, which examined what happened when the Ottawa telecommunications engineer was tortured in Syria over false terrorism suspicions, recommended in a 2006 report that a new body be created to monitor the national security activities of the both RCMP and the border agency. 

The Globe and Mail 04/03/2014 -  The Conservative cabinet minister responsible for the safety of Canadians overseas is offering no explanation for her government's refusal to demand the release of a Canadian journalist being held in an Egyptian prison. Lynne Yelich, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Consular Services, spoke to journalists in a conference call from Geneva on Tuesday after spending two days in meetings with the United Nations Human Rights Council. "Canada is doing its due process," she said. "It's been informed of any updates and this is an area that has been of interest and we are watching it very closely."