Family of child stuck on 'no-fly list' hopeful new redress system will ease travel

A London, Ont., family is hopeful air travel won't be as traumatic and time consuming after the federal government introduced a new system to better identify people affected by Canada's "no-fly list."

"I'm feeling glad that we've made a positive impact and that the government did step up to work with us on this," said Zamir Khan whose son, Sebastian, has been held up at airports for extra security checks since he was six months old.

It took several years for Khan and is family to realize that his now six-year-old son was facing extra scrutiny because his name matches someone on Canada's no-fly list. 

On Wednesday, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in the coming days, certain travellers, like Sebastian Khan, will be able to apply for a Canadian Travel Number, a unique number they will be able to use when they book a flight to distinguish them from people on the list.

The no-fly list, formally known as the Passenger Protection Program, was introduced in 2007, as a way to stop people considered to be potential security threats from boarding commercial planes. 

But since it was built on names and not unique identifiers such as dates of birth or passport numbers, hundreds of innocent Canadians like Sebastian Khan have been erroneously flagged as threats, causing travel to become much stressful than usual with extra security checks and invasive questioning.

"We've been more fortunate because of Sebastian's very young age," Khan, who has been advocating for change with other parents in a No-Fly List Kids group, said.

"For us, what it looked like was we would never be able to check into our flights through the normal methods, we would always have to show up quite early to the check-in desk and without it being made obvious to us, there was a phone call being made to a serious kind of security member who would [have to give the] okay that Sebastian was allowed to get on the flight."

"We met other families who had older children and young men who started to get detained and be treated in less than acceptable ways due to this and it really, for them, resulted in a lot of stigma," he said. 

Khan is hopeful the redress system will ease travelling for him and other families with children caught in the list. 

"We're not flying anywhere right now and not for the foreseeable future, but we believe that when we do, we'll be able to fly normally with Sebastian without having to make any difference in our in our approach."

According to the federal government the online application for a Canadian Travel Number will roll out in within the next two weeks.