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Workers who apply for security clearance at the busy cruise ship terminal at Canada Place undergo thorough background checks which look into their partners’ backgrounds, the identities of people with whom they’ve been photographed and any relevant CSIS or RCMP files, Ashton said. Applicants are also required to provide fingerprints.

Ashton said once Bill C-23 is enacted, union members who are approved to work at the port will have their profiles submitted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for vetting. The department can then respond with its own assessment of the worker back to Transport Canada, which has final say on whether the worker gets clearance.

It is unclear how many union members will be applying or re-applying for clearance when the bill is enacted, but it’s possible that up to 2,000 members would be impacted, Ashton said. He said that with the Trump administration’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and efforts to enact laws targeting people of certain nationalities and religions, the union also worries many of its members could be subjected to racial profiling.

“We’re really worried … that because they’re Muslim or because their family’s from, say, Syria, they’re going to have a derogatory comment placed against them, sent up to Transport Canada from the U.S., and then our worker will not be able to work in Canada,” Ashton said.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is concerned the bill may be unconstitutional by potentially removing a traveller’s right to withdraw from pre-clearance, impacting U.S. officers’ power to detain travellers and allowing U.S. officers working on Canadian soil to conduct strip searches.