Federal NDP leader Avi Lewis is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney's government to block a US$125 million data-sharing deal between Thomson Reuters and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, demanding that Ottawa deny export permits and pull public subsidies from any company doing business with the U.S. immigration enforcement agency.

The contract, a sole-source arrangement between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a Thomson Reuters subsidiary, grants ICE access to the company's CLEAR database over five years at US$25 million annually. CLEAR aggregates property records, social media data, and geolocation information. According to a procurement document obtained by 404 Media, Thomson Reuters states it is the only company that allows ICE "continuous monitoring" of millions of people. The contract is described as "newly renewed," extending a relationship that began in 2015 when Thomson Reuters first provided CLEAR to track people for deportation. The latest renewal, however, is the first to specify that the software will support the Trump administration's objectives of addressing supposed "voter fraud" alongside "immigration fraud."

Wired reported that ICE is also using Thomson Reuters data broker tools to identify unaccompanied minors.

Canada's National Observer broke the story on July 21, 2026, in an investigative piece by reporter Jeremy Appel. The Guardian provided broader coverage three days later, on July 24, amplifying the political dimension by foregrounding Lewis's demands.

Lewis told Canada's National Observer that the CLEAR contract is a "reminder of how deeply entwined Canada's elites" are with surveillance and deportation. Thomson Reuters is owned by the Woodbridge Company, the holding company for the Thomson family, frequently described as Canada's richest family. The corporate ownership structure places the deal squarely in a domestic political frame: a Canadian-controlled company supplying data infrastructure to a U.S. agency whose enforcement practices have drawn sustained criticism.

A Thomson Reuters spokesperson declined to comment on customer contracts and referred to a webpage stating that CLEAR is licensed "exclusively to select businesses, law enforcement and government agencies" and that its "investigative solutions are not surveillance tools." That characterization sits in tension with the procurement language describing continuous monitoring of millions of individuals. The discrepancy between corporate framing and documented contract terms is likely to feature in any parliamentary scrutiny should the Carney government engage with Lewis's demands.

The prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Thomson Reuters contract.

Lewis has proposed specific levers: denying export permits to companies selling equipment to ICE and withdrawing public subsidies or contracts from any company dealing with the agency. These are not abstract suggestions. Export permit authority falls under Canadian federal jurisdiction, and the government controls procurement eligibility and subsidy programs across multiple departments. Whether the Carney government chooses to exercise these tools is a separate question from whether it possesses them.

This is not the NDP's first intervention on ICE-related matters. In January 2026, the party made similar calls following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis. The current demand escalates that earlier posture by targeting a specific, high-value contract with a Canadian corporate pillar rather than issuing a general condemnation.

A shareholder proposal at Thomson Reuters calling on the company to review the human rights implications of its work with U.S. immigration authorities garnered approximately 3% support, according to CTV News. That vote, held in June 2026, signals that investor pressure on the issue remains marginal but organized.

The broader stakes here extend beyond a single procurement contract. The deal intersects three live political fault lines simultaneously: the governance of cross-border data flows, the accountability of Canadian corporate conglomerates for the downstream uses of their products, and the Carney government's posture toward the Trump administration's immigration enforcement priorities. Each of these dimensions carries its own constituency and its own institutional venue for challenge, from Export Controls to parliamentary committees to shareholder activism.

The renewal's explicit inclusion of "voter fraud" as a targeting objective marks a shift from prior contracts focused on immigration enforcement. This expansion of scope places Thomson Reuters' CLEAR database at the intersection of immigration policing and electoral fraud investigations, two domains that carry distinct legal protections and political sensitivities. How Canadian authorities assess that expansion, if they choose to assess it at all, will shape the precedent for future corporate transactions involving dual-use data infrastructure.