US agency is to pay Canadian media company US$125m for use of investigative database to detect ‘immigration fraud’

A Canadian federal opposition party leader has called on Mark Carney’s government to block the latest data-sharing deal between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Canadian media company Thomson Reuters.

Avi Lewis, the federal leader of the New Democratic party (NDP), demanded on Tuesday that Ottawa address the contract and further restrict Canadian corporations from doing business with ICE, after Canada’s National Observer news website reported on the deal.

“My blood ran cold when I read about this development,” he added in a statement to the Guardian. “Complicity between Canadian corporations and ICE should absolutely be illegal.”

Under the US$125m (£94m) deal, ICE will pay the technology and content conglomerate to access its Clear database – which includes property records, social media and geolocation information – in order to identify “voter fraud” and “immigration fraud”, according to reports.

In a procurement document obtained by 404 Media, Thomson Reuters says it is the only company that allows ICE to have access to the “continuous monitoring” of millions of people.

Thomson Reuters’ contracts with ICE date back to 2015, when it first began providing US officials with access to Clear in order to track people for deportation. Critics have long alleged that the databases were being used to facilitate human rights abuses.

The latest contract, however, is the first to state that Clear software will be used to support the Trump administration’s objectives of addressing supposed “voter fraud”.

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Thomson Reuters is owned by the Woodbridge Company, a holding company for the Thomson family, frequently described as the richest family in Canada. The media company also owns the news agency Reuters and the Globe and Mail newspaper.

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Lewis said the federal government should deny export permits to companies selling equipment to ICE, and pull public subsidies or contracts from any companies that have dealings with the agency. In January, the NDP made similar calls after the fatal shootings of two US citizens by ICE in Minneapolis.

“If the Carney government is serious about Canadian economic independence, it should move to block this contract,” Lewis said.