Ottawa going 'overboard' with no-fly list, expert warns

Last Updated: Sunday, June 17, 2007 | 3:41 PM ET

CBC News

The federal government is going "overboard" with a program, launching Monday, that will check airline passengers' names against a Canadian "no-fly" list of those deemed to be potential threats, a transportation expert warns.

Who may be placed on the 'no-fly' list:
An individual who has been involved in a terrorist group and who, it can reasonably be suspected, will endanger the security of any aircraft or aerodrome, or the safety of the public, passengers or crew members. An individual who has been convicted of one or more serious and life-threatening crimes against aviation security. An individual who has been convicted of one or more serious and life-threatening offences and who may attack or harm an air carrier, passengers or crew members.
Source: Transport Canada

Barry Prentice, the director of the Transport Institute at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, said Transport Canada's Specified Persons list is "sort of a charade" to make people feel like they have greater security.

"I don't think it's going to help one bit," Prentice told CBC News on Sunday. "What terrorist is going to travel with their own name and passport? It's like a bank robber using his own card to have a heist.

"These people are going to steal or create a forged passport and identification if they're going to do anything anyway."

On the other hand, he warned, some travellers could be wrongly identified as security risks under the Passenger Protect program — and wind up with all kinds of problems.

He expressed doubts about whether Transport Canada's Office of Reconsideration would be able to end those headaches for people who find themselves wrongly added to the list.

"If your name is incorrectly put on, then you'll have a way [through the Office of Reconsideration] of getting your name off that list, but that doesn't mean if they give this list to a foreign airline, it doesn't end up on the U.S. no-fly list or some other countries' no-fly lists."

Prentice said he sees the list as "simply as being an appeasement for the U.S. paranoia," adding the system "hasn't shown any particular efficacy there."

The U.S. no-fly list entered the public spotlight after the attacks on Washington and New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Before the hijackings of four airliners on that day, the U.S. list had 16 names on it, according to CBS's 60 Minutes. Since then, the list has expanded to include about 44,000 names, it reported.

"We're having a no-fly list because they have a no-fly list.… They want us to have one and we want to open trade with the U.S., so we're getting one."

Prentice said the Canadian government should limit the size of its no-fly list and make sure the number of names doesn't get into the thousands.

"Let's limit it to the size of a hockey team and let's keep it public," he said. "I just think this is overboard."

In May, the federal government announced that as another part of the Passenger Protect program, all travellers 12 and older on flights within Canada, from Canada and destined for Canada would have to show valid photo identification, or two pieces of additional ID, one of which shows date of birth, name and gender, before they will be issued a boarding pass.

In June, the government said it was temporarily easing the rules so that travellers in Canada who appear to be between 12 and 17 years of age would require only one piece of government-issued identification, with or without photo, before boarding an aircraft.

The exemption for travellers under 18 in Canada will be in place until Sept. 18, officials said.