Even though there are no apparent significantly off statements in the CityNews article titled "Immigration lawyers say rising number of CSIS security screenings causing delays," there is little useful information in the article; it illuminates rather little beyond the headline, and for those who follow these matters, that merely affirms what has been largely obvious for a long time, the main change is that more recently this appears to be affecting a larger number of applicants. Not only is important context absent, the article conflates and confuses more than it informs.
The reference to the number of "screening requests," for example, appears to include routine referrals for background clearances, the vast majority of which are more or less perfunctory, largely automated relying on information in databases, and in citizenship application processing not what is causing delays, not for the vast majority of applicants. The delays are generally in cases where there is an investigatory referral, or where something flags the applicant in the routine clearance procedure.
Consider the Ali Abuhannoud's situation, for example, in which he recognizes his case is different than most, recognizing that the security background clearance (which is done for all adult citizenship applicants) is not causing any delay for most others, and so he feels he in particular is "being punished" based on factors he did not choose, like where he comes from.
Despite many explicit references in published decisions, and my many references (going back many years) in this forum, to IRCC accessing what it calls "open sources," which includes social media and LinkedIn in particular (LinkedIn being one of the mostly commonly referenced open sources cited in numerous published decisions), perhaps some have not been aware that this has been common in non-routine inquiries and investigations for a long time.
But it is hard to fathom anyone being surprised that law enforcement and security intelligence services, like CBSA, RCMP, and CSIS, regularly utilize open sources including social media when conducting background screening let alone investigations.
So, for those who may have been hanging out under a rock, yeah, they can and they often do check open sources, including social media, even just in regards to screening to verify things like employment and address history, let alone attendant investigations in processing applicants in what are considered complex and highly complex cases. For citizenship applicants and enforcement of the PR Residency Obligation, it appears that IRCC (and CBSA on referral) often access open sources to crosscheck information related to physical presence.
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, in this regard it warrants being aware that such checks screen information for name variants.
Please excuse being a bit fuzzy with details, since I am relying on my recall, but among cases I have previously discussed here in the forum was one where CIC (before the name change to IRCC) contested a citizenship applicant's physical presence based on finding information about a conference in Europe at which the applicant was a speaker, which was during a time period the applicant reported being in Canada. Another was a case where the applicant listed U.S. employment experience in LinkedIn for a period he listed his employment, in the application, as being in Canada. In another case I have discussed here in the past, but in the PR part of the forum, another LinkedIn scenario, there was an allegation of misrepresentation based on extensive discrepancies between information (both in work and address history) provided by the client and what IRCC found in a LinkedIn account under a similar but not the same name, even though the client denied it was her LinkedIn account.
In any event, we get a lot of news here from the U.S. (too ugly too often but that's another subject) and in the news about almost every major crime there (there are so many) the FBI and other law enforcement seem to almost immediately conduct an internet search of the suspects' social media. Maybe that's not the very first focus of their investigation, but high on the list. No one should be surprised in the least that Canadian law enforcement also utilize open sources including social media. So they don't go around your neighbourhood and talk to neighbours as much as they did in the past (when things got into the investigatory phase, which does not happen for most, just some).
