DFO is responding to questions raised by the fisheries union about the recent seizure of a member’s cell phone as part of an ongoing investigation.
FFAW President Dwan Street questioned whether the department overstepped its boundaries in seizing Inshore Council Vice President, Jason Sullivan’s phone.
DFO says communication tools and recording devices, like personal phones, may be seized by fisheries officers if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the device was obtained by, or used in the commission of, an offence under the Fisheries Act—or that it can provide evidence of the offence.
DFO says the device is securely stored and handled by authorized personnel only and access to its contents are only allowed by a trained examiner from DFO’s National Digital Forensic Service or a partnering agency like the RCMP.
The contents searched and retrieved from the device must fall within the specific scope of a search warrant related to the offence as authorized by a judge.
