ICE will pay Canadian media giant US$125m to use its investigative database to identify ‘immigration fraud’ A Canadian federal opposition party leader is calling on the Mark Carney…

ICE will pay Canadian media giant US$125m to use its investigative database to identify ‘immigration fraud’ A Canadian federal opposition party leader is calling on the Mark Carney government to block the latest data-sharing deal between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Canadian media giant 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 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 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 firm 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”.