Border agency began tracking database usage same time it discovered employee's unauthorized searches

OTTAWA — The federal border agency says it began tracking who uses its databases the same year it discovered one of its senior employees had improperly passed on confidential information to immigration applicants, some of whom would become clients of his real estate side gigs.

“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,” Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said in an email.

The changes happened the same year CBSA discovered that one of its longtime employees, Placide Kalisa, had conducted “countless” unauthorized searches on confidential government databases and then shared information with immigration applicants for at least 13 years.

Some of that information was disclosed to immigration applicants who were also potential clients of Kalisa’s side jobs as a real-estate agent and manager.

“He committed many serious acts of misconduct over a long period. He accessed the CBSA’s and (Immigration Canada’s) databases to carry out searches that were not required or related to his CBSA work. He made them for personal reasons, either to help acquaintances or to benefit his real-estate agent activities,” the CBSA told a labour tribunal.

On Tuesday, National Post reported that the tribunal recently confirmed Kalisa’s suspension and subsequent firing in 2017.

In the decision, the labour board revealed that CBSA only discovered Kalisa’s unauthorized searches and disclosures after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) flagged concerns about the employee’s top-secret security clearance.

Kalisa declined to comment on the decision Monday but said in an email that he was considering suing both CBSA and his former union for discrimination and, in the latter’s case, failing to represent him while he challenged his dismissal.

In her statement, Purdy said CBSA “welcomes” the labour board’s decision.

“Employees are accountable for their actions and are required to demonstrate professionalism in their day-to-day activities,” she wrote.

The decision does not explain why CBSA did not realize for over one decade that Kalisa had made unauthorized searches on CBSA and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) databases for dozens of immigration applicants at their request.

Nor did it explain why it took a red flag from CSIS for the border agency to look into Kalisa.

Purdy said in her statement that since discovering Kalisa’s wrongdoing, CBSA had beefed up its security awareness training and security briefings for employees to ensure they are aware of 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 directive on security management.

But her statement also reveals that CBSA only put in place procedures for its employees to submit annual attestations on conflicts of interest during the 2024-2025 fiscal year, at least seven years after Kalisa was fired.

Kalisa was fired in part because he repeatedly put himself in conflicts of interest by using CBSA resources, including his title, email address and the agency’s databases, to benefit himself or his acquaintances.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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