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OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — A bill before Canada’s Senate that proposed to lower the threshold for when border guards would be allowed to snoop on or even seize one’s electronic devices has been voted down by the national security and defense committee.

Nine of 12 members who make up the Senate’s national security committee rejected a proposal by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on Monday to designate “reasonable general concern” as a reason for border agents to go ahead and search one’s electronic devices.

Bill S-7, known as “An Act to amend the Customs Act and the Preclearance Act, 2016,” was proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau-appointed Senator Marc Gold. It recently finished a review by the national security and defense committee and now awaits third reading.

The contentious legislation would allow border agents to “examine documents, including emails, text messages, receipts, photographs or videos, that are stored on a personal digital device.”

As reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, Bill S-7 would have changed Canada’s Customs Act to in effect lower the scenarios whereby Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) agents would be able to search personal electronic devices.

Senator Mobina Jaffer said that they did not have “one witness except the Minister and the officials say this was a good idea.”

Jaffer sponsored a motion that would substitute Mendicino’s “general concern” threshold with “reasonable grounds to suspect.”

Jaffer said, “I am very concerned about this.”

Currently, a “reasonable grounds to suspect” limit is what’s considered the norm and what’s required by both mail inspectors and those who handle dogs that sniff for drugs.

Senator David Richards said that he is “very afraid of this bill,” adding that there is “always a personal bias.”

Richards noted that all of his personal information, or his “whole life,” is contained within his cellphone.

“I tend to suspect anything that allows a stranger to look through it,” he added.

As for the bill’s sponsor, Gold also opposed Mendicino’s amendment, telling the National Post that the bill in effect creates “a legal standard where one never existed before.”

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) blasted the lowering of the search threshold, saying it would have been “very low, and legally novel.”

It is now up to all senators to decide whether to accept the committee’s recommendations that the lower threshold is too vague and would allow for abuses. Once the bill is through in the Senate, it will go to Canada’s House of Commons.

In recent weeks and months, the Trudeau government has brought forth legislation that has raised serious alarm bells for their apparent attack on both freedoms on the internet and in the press.

Both Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 seek to regulate the internet and force Big Tech companies to champion selected media outlets based on a special designation given by the federal government.

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