The RCMP announced Monday it will expunge any data on religious and cultural practices collected from Muslim refugee claimants who had crossed the U.S. border at a popular informal crossing in Quebec. The move follows a Star story last month that highlighted the federal police force’s line of questioning. The data had been obtained using an interview guide that included questions specifically targeting Muslims. The RCMP stopped using the questionnaire after the Star brought it to the attention of the force’s national headquarters.The information, which includes “operational files as well as any audio recordings on DVD,” will be held in sealed envelopes for the two years the force is required to keep the information due to privacy legislation, the RCMP wrote.In total, the RCMP said it collected 5,438 files containing a completed questionnaire or references to one. Those records will be “permanently redacted” from electronic databases, and sealed recordings will be retained “for two years after its last use for an administrative purpose” and then destroyed, the RCMP wrote in a statement to the Star.The RCMP also shared this information with the Canada Border Services Agency. When contacted by the Star Monday, a CBSA spokesperson said the agency is looking into the matter.While refugee lawyers who had worked with the thousands of men, women and children seeking asylum had anecdotally heard about questions that profiled Muslims, it wasn’t until a client of Toronto lawyer Clifford McCarten was handed his completed questionnaire by mistake that there was proof of its use.“I am impressed that the RCMP appears to have taken it this seriously,” McCarten said Monday. “Following the initial publication of this matter, I was contacted by people who shared the alternately perplexing and intimidating experience of being questioned about their religious beliefs by police. Some believed that if they gave th ...
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