Posted on 08/05/2005 5:56:54 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
HALIFAX -- Canada will create its own version of a no-fly list as part of a security program critics say is coming far too late and will do little to shield it from terrorist attacks like those last month in London.
Federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre said Friday that officials will begin devising criteria that would identify people who pose "an immediate threat to aviation security," and will work with airlines to stop those people from flying.
Lapierre insisted the new program, called Passenger Protect, will not violate the Charter of Rights or the Constitution.
But he wouldn't spell out what criteria would be used to determine who would be considered a security risk.
"We're not going to have a big list like the U.S. has," Lapierre said in Halifax after delivering a luncheon speech.
"Obviously there are people that are full of bad intentions and if we can identify them and make sure they don't sit next to you on the plane, I think people will accept that."
The list, expected to be in place by 2006 and contain up to 1,000 names, would be developed in consultation with the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Lapierre said.
However, opposition critics swiftly attacked Lapierre's "announcement" as little more than a rehash of previous statements he's made, with no clear financial figures attached.
"We've had lots of security announcements from this government and very little action. This is part of a pattern of phoney announcements," Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said.
"They're just way behind and they substitute announcements for action."
Senator Colin Kenny, chair of the Senate's national security committee, echoed the comments, saying the government has spent $9 billion in the last 3{ years to bolster its security system but has little to show for it.
Airline personnel, baggage handlers and other airport workers are still not screened thoroughly, he said, while port workers do not go through meaningful security checks.
"This is late in the day and the announcement is not that this system is in place," Kenny said in an interview.
Politicians from the planned new parliamentary committee on national security must be involved in setting the criteria for inclusion on the no-fly list, said Roch Tasse of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.
It should not be left to bureaucrats and security officials to decide what sort of a person represents a threat, he said.
"Is it only people who are already official targets of investigations under national security?" he asked. "Is it names being provided by the United States that are not really investigated and reviewed by Canada? Is it people that the security forces think are a terrorist threat because they happen to be activists on domestic issues, like anti-globalization or whatever?"
Lapierre notes creating the policy has been slowed by thorny legal considerations, such as the guarantee of free mobility in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and federal privacy laws that limit distribution of personal information.
"We cannot just come up and put anybody's name on the list," the minister told reporters. "We're learning from the American experience ... and we want to have a realistic list that we can live with within the Canadian context."
The U.S. has operated a no-fly list for years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Officials say the list will not be widely published and would be revised regularly, a nod to missteps in the States that saw folksinger Cat Stevens deported and Ted Kennedy hassled at airports.
Bill Bredt, a senior official with Air Canada-Jazz, said the security measure is long overdue, but is concerned the cost will be borne by the airlines.
"I think this is probably due," he said. "But we need to understand what the rules are, the application and what is the impact to the travelling public and to the airlines."
As part of an overall transportation security plan, Lapierre also said he will meet with key players in the ground transportation system in light of the recent subway attacks in London.
"We've decided we're going to move on all modes of transportation ... We know now that all modes of transport are at risk," said the minister.
He said he's hoping to come up with ways of improving security on subways and other public transit systems, but specifics will be hammered out with the industry.
The measures could include installing surveillance cameras in all subways and buses in major cities, adding more dirty-bomb detection devices at ports, implementing eye scans of frequent airline travellers, and more carefully monitoring hazardous cargo moved by rail or truck.
Quarantine the muslims of the world. Little to no movement.
Certainly not to "western, civilized" countries.
No one believes them. As President Reagan would have said, "There they go again."
They want us to think they are doing something while they pray that the bombers will just go away and blow up Israel, London, and America and leave them to spend their money on National Daycare.
Wait a minute?
I thought terrorists only attacked countries who were involved in Iraq?
You mean the MSM is lying?
Other than deportation back to Mecca.
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