The Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) has published a written statement on its website that when the CBSA conducts an examination of electronic devices (e.g., laptops, smart phones, USB keys, etc.) at the Canadian border, CBSA officers must not search electronic documents marked as “solicitor-client”. The CBSA has published a webpage entitled “Examining digital
The CBSA Should Respect Solicitor-Client Privilege At The Canadian Border
The Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) does have an internal policy with respect to examinations and searches of lawyers who are crossing the border into Canada. This internal policy (Operational Bulletin PRG-2014-07 “Examination of Solicitor-Client Privileged Materials”) is not publicly available on the CBSA web-site, so we posted it. It is available through
What Should A Lawyer Do To Claim Solicitor-Client Privilege at the Canadian Border?
At the present time, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) does not have a published or informal policy concerning what a lawyer should do to claim solicitor-client privilege during an examination of documents in a lawyer’s briefcase or electronic documents on a lawyer’s computer or PDA.
Based on the Alain Philippon case, currently before the