Davis Human Rights Tribunal Continues

The Human Rights Tribunal of Fallan Davis V. CBSA continued this week. Debbie Zion, a Canada Border Service Agency operations director, testified that it took many attempts to locate important video footage of an alleged harassment incident involving Davis in 2005. Zion told the tribunal she finally discovered a package containing footage material, in all places a “personal locker.”

The evidence was found in December 2009, four years after Fallan Davis was interrogated by Cornwall port of entry CBSA agents on Nov. 18, 2005. Zion came up with the footage material after many requests to her by several different CBSA officials to locate the wayward evidence. The searches began after August 2009 when Zion reassumed her former position as director of operations for a territory that included the Cornwall-Akwesasne crossing. By “pure luck”, Zion said she noticed a package containing a large envelope among “personal effects such as a pair of shoes (and) a spare tie” in her personal cabinet. The package was entitled Nov. 18th incident Cornwall. Zion surmised that an undetermined CBSA colleague had decided to place the package in her cabinet because the hard drive wouldn’t fit into the desk drawer set aside for complaints. She was unaware of who did it because she had been on a sick leave and her duties had been temporarily assigned to other managers. The tardy find prompted an investigation by other CBSA officials into the protocol surrounding the storage of evidence pertaining to all serious complaints.

Later during cross examination, Davis’ representative, Kakwerais, asked Zion about the search for the material, and under further questioning from Kakwerais, Zion revealed that footage had to be “created” by splicing together various parts of the video surveillance from different camera viewpoints. Zion said it was one of the duties of a port of entry superintendent and also said that a “chain of evidence” is not put together unless a law is broken.

Later on, Kakwerais said it was crucial that more data is needed on the operating history of the VACIS machine which had scanned Davis’ motor vehicle. CBSA lawyer Sean Gaudet argued that that CBSA documentation on the VACIS is no longer available. But Kakwerais claimed that VACIS information could be obtained from the Atomic Energy Control Board. She said this is crucial because it deals with Davis’ concern that VACIS radiation may have harmed her unborn child. Tribunal chair Robert Malo told Kakwerais she would need to bring forward a motion to ask for atomic board information.