Independent Senator Marilou McPhedran is imploring the Senate not to pass Bill C-23, a contentious government bill that grants American border guards new powers.

The proposed legislation will empower American border guards to question and search Canadians using pre-clearance areas, which exist to speed up the travel process. Those searches can include strip searches and internal cavity searches, and a Canadian traveller can be requested to stay put until the border guard is satisfied that their questions have been answered.

The bill would also allow American border guards to override the judgement of Canadian border guards in deciding whether to use these powers on a traveller.

“It’s got the makings of an urban horror movie,” said McPhedran.

“It’s a reduction of privacy rights, it’s a reduction of personal security and there’s no genuine remedy anywhere in the (bill) that allows us, as Canadians, to rely on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said McPhedran.

McPhedran says she knows of at least one other senator with concerns.

“Senator (Serge) Joyal, who is a constitutional expert, is very concerned about this bill,” said McPhedran.

McPhedran said it can be hard to tell how many other Senators are prepared to move against the government on Bill C-23, as the bill is being rushed through the Senate to legislate an existing pre-clearance agreement signed by Canada and the United States in 2015.

“It’s an agreement, a contract between the two countries made at the executive level … and the parliamentarians are being told hurry up, get this through, because the economy depends on it,” said McPhedran, “(if the bill passes) I will feel like the legislative function in Canadian government has been reduced to rubber stamping a prior executive bureaucratic agreement” with consequences for the rights of Canadians, she added.

While the preamble of the bill says the actions of the American border guards in preclearance areas are subject to Canadian law – including the Charter – McPhedran noted that this assurance is not actually affirmed in any other section of the bill.

McPhedran, a prominent human rights lawyer, said Section 26.1, which is often pointed to as providing recourse for those whose rights have been violated, only allows Canadians to file an administrative complaint.

In addition to that, “the government of Canada has removed any liability for itself,” said McPhedran.

She explained that the bill states “a preclearance officer is not a servant of the Crown for the purposes of the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act,” which McPhedran said absolves the government of responsibility.

The lack of Charter protection and recourse worries McPhedran in light of the expansion of U.S. border guards’ powers.

McPhedran explained that whether it’s racial profiling or simply a border guard feeling annoyance, “there doesn’t have to be a cause anymore … it’s highly subjective on the part of the guard.

“A right is only a right when it can be lived,” she added.

Bill C-23 will be under clause-by-clause consideration at Wednesday’s Senate national security and defence committee meeting.