Ottawa crafts plan to ward off privacy criticism over U.S. border deal

The Globe &amp Mail has received a secret briefing document on developing a communications plan for selling an upcoming deal with the United States to create a common security perimeter around Canada and the US. The document list the Privacy Commissioner as a likely critic of the plan:

Ottawa crafts plan to ward off criticism over U.S. border deal - The Globe and Mail

... It also provides a rare insight into how the government regards Canadians: as a nation ignorant of the true scale of the security threat it faces and more concerned with privacy rights.

The communications strategy for the perimeter security declaration – which the document says will be unveiled in January, 2011 – predicts one of the biggest potential critics will be the federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. That’s because the deal is expected to increase the amount of data exchanged between law enforcement and other government authorities in both countries.