The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has confirmed that it began monitoring who accesses its databases in 2016, the same year it uncovered that a senior employee had improperly shared confidential information with immigration applicants, some of whom later became clients of his real estate side businesses.
Database usage tracking since 2016
“Since 2016, database usage — including all adds/moves/changes/deletes — are captured, logged, and stored to a repository which is accessible for internal auditing functions. Any new or updated systems are required to record to this system for auditing purposes,” CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy stated in an email.
This change coincided with the discovery that Placide Kalisa, a longtime CBSA employee, had conducted numerous unauthorized searches on confidential government databases over at least 13 years and shared the information with immigration applicants.
Kalisa's misconduct
Kalisa used his access to CBSA and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) databases for personal gain, including to assist acquaintances and benefit his real estate agent and property manager roles. The CBSA told a labour tribunal that Kalisa committed “many serious acts of misconduct over a long period.”
On Tuesday, the National Post reported that the tribunal upheld Kalisa's suspension and subsequent firing in 2017. The labour board revealed that the CBSA only discovered the unauthorized searches after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) flagged concerns about Kalisa's top-secret security clearance.
Ongoing concerns
The decision did not explain why the CBSA failed to detect Kalisa's activities for over a decade, nor why it took a CSIS alert to prompt an investigation. Purdy noted that since the incident, the CBSA has enhanced security awareness training and briefings to ensure employees understand confidentiality requirements.
“To ensure that users are respectful and accountable for their online activities, IT systems are required to log user activities” in line with the agency’s security management directive, she added.
Kalisa declined to comment on the decision but indicated in an email that he is considering suing both the CBSA and his former union for discrimination and failure to represent him during his dismissal challenge.
