This is an excellent analysis of some of the shortcomings of the no-fly list. He could have noted that some suspected of immediate plots and being monitored are not on the list because agencies do not want them to be alerted to that fact.
No Fly List, Other Spook Lists, and the Court of Star Chamber
The federal government’s No Fly list came into effect this morning. Ottawa’s list includes the name, date of birth, and gender of persons who supposedly could pose a threat to aviation safety, if they were to board a flight.
The No Fly list is being provided to all airlines that fly within Canada or in and out of Canada. The list is administered by Transport Canada. It has been compiled secretly, no one will say by whom, and no one will tell us how many names are on the list.
According to a Globe and Mail story, the Canadian No Fly list is expected to contain fewer than one thousand names. The Globe provides no source for this.
The United States has a similar No Fly list and one of the reasons Ottawa is drawing up its own list is to reassure Washington that we are doing all in our power to aid in the War on Terror. The American list, which contained as many as 70,000 names at one point, has been the cause of numerous “false positives”---people with the same name or similar names to those on the list---being barred from taking a flight. Among those caught in the net have been Senator Edward Kennedy, and Edmonton Conservative MP John Williams.
The way the Canadian system works is as follows. All passengers when they are at the airline counter to pick up their boarding passes will have their names checked against the No Fly list. If the passenger’s name is on the list, the airline employee hands the person a printed form that explains that he or she is on the No Fly list. Instructions are included about how to contact Transport Canada and how to appeal for the removal of one’s name from the list. Once the printout has been handed to the rejected passenger, the airline ceases to be involved.
You could be in Toronto, Tokyo, Cairo or Washington when this administrative fiat comes down on you. That’s tough. There’s no way to find out before you plan your trip whether you’re on the list. And just because you’ve been allowed to fly to Paris doesn’t mean that your name won’t be added to the list before your return flight home. You can, of course, take a passenger ship home if one is available. That is unless the security forces in the airport pick you up when they see that you haven’t been allowed to board your flight. That might not happen in Moncton, but I’d be less happy-go-lucky about this in Beijing or New York.
What about the rights of other passengers to board their flights in the most secure possible circumstances, you were about to ask? Don’t their rights trump those of the people whose names were put on the No Fly list for a very good reason? People with nothing to hide have nothing to fear, the old saying goes.
We’ll return to the rights issue, but first the security question. Any sensible person will agree that people are entitled to the best possible security protection when they board an aircraft. Few who have examined the matter would claim that Canada’s procedures provide the best possible security. The major hole in this country’s arrangements---from the time of the bombing of Air India in 1985 to the present---has been the failure to X Ray all baggage being loaded onto aircraft, and where there have been specific warnings, to use other measures as well, such as the use of sniffer dogs. This costs money. Let’s spend it.
The American experience with a No Fly list has done nothing useful except to provide jokes for late night comics. Almost no one thinks that future terrorists who board a plane will carry ID that will show up on the No Fly list.
This takes us back to the rights question.
The idea of drawing up a secret list and asking airlines to administer it is frightening. Foreign airlines and governments will get to know your name is on the list..
People on the list are presumed to pose a terror threat. If this is true they ought to be arrested and charged with a criminal offence. Instead, we’ve cooked up a new category of person----someone too innocent to be charged with an offensive, but too guilty to be allowed to board an aircraft.
Those who are on the list are not permitted to face those who have accused them in a transparent judicial proceeding.
Those on the No Fly list are not allowed to fly inside Canada. Worse still, they have had their right to travel internationally effectively removed. One of the rights guaranteed in the Canadian Constitution is that of mobility. Section 6: 1 reads: “Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.”
This is not the first time that “spook lists” have been drawn up to harass citizens. I have had some personal experience with this.
In the late 1980s, when they were in their late seventies, my parents who had quit the Communist Party of Canada in 1956, were flying back to Toronto from Europe. Their flight was re-routed to Chicago due to bad weather. When the passengers deplaned in Chicago, my parents were taken aside and held by a U.S. government agent in a special holding room. When there was a flight available to Toronto, they were escorted onto the plane by an agent. Three decades after they had left a legal political party, they were still not allowed to enter the Land of the Free.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was involved in the Waffle Movement in the NDP, an open and democratic political movement. In March 1971, the Security Service of the RCMP, in a brief on the Waffle group submitted to the Solicitor General of Canada Jean-Pierre Goyer, noted that:
The prime aim of the Waffle Group within the NDP is the establishment of an independent socialist Canada to be achieved through the existing structure of the New Democratic Party. The Waffle group hope to change the NDP from within and radicalize the NDP socialist policies. Considering the Waffle group as a whole, it is felt they will be a viable political force within the NDP.
Apart from their assessment of the political viability of the Waffle, the spooks got the story right. What matters is that the Waffle was neither the first nor the last political movement to be spied on by the security forces of the Canadian government. Trade unionists, student activists, socialists, anarchists, and Quebec sovereignists have had their phones bugged and their names entered onto spook lists.
The idea that we would allow the government of Canada to ask its thoroughly discredited security agencies to draw up a new spook list---the No Fly list---is appalling. On the list will undoubtedly be some who are being profiled because of their religion or their ethnicity. In addition, the list could contain the names of political activists, writers, odd balls or people not to the liking of the current government. The point is that we can’t find out what criteria have been used to draw up this list.
Truly worrying is the creation of categories of citizens whose rights are removed in the absence of any judicial process. By judicial proceeding, I mean a criminal trial, of course. But I also mean an administrative hearing in which a non-criminal complaint could be made. In both of these cases, the accused person would have the right to a defence.
The No Fly list is the kind of secret, arbitrary injustice that was meted out by the Stuart monarchs in England by the infamous Court of Star Chamber. The horrors committed by the Court of Star Chamber motivated England and later Canada to embrace the principle that no one should be secretly charged with an offence and that everyone has a right to hear the charges against him or her and to a defence in a transparent proceeding.
It won’t be long before outraged people complain about the ways the No Fly list has negatively affected them. Let’s hope that we are not serving up another Maher Arar to some arbitrary government when some hapless Canadian citizen tries to fly home from a less than civil libertarian foreign city.
Showing posts with label Canadian no fly list. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian no fly list. Show all posts
Friday, June 22, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Airport Confrontations over no-fly list?
Well so far no deep integration or harmonisation of no-fly lists! Will there be pressure from the US to include more? The US list has long been known as having absurd features. It includes dead people as well as the president of Bolivia until recently. Some terror suspects unfortunately have common names and this causes many many false positives and disruption of quite innocent people's flight plans. The US and Canadian lists at 1,000 versus nearly 70,000 seem quite different. I wonder if we just took the most suspicious of the 70,000. There is no word of how one might challenge the inclusion of one's name on the list.
Friday » June 15 » 2007
Air Canada fears airport confrontations over no-fly list,
Jim Brown
Canadian Press
Friday, June 15, 2007
OTTAWA (CP) - The country's biggest airline says it's worried about confrontations with irate travellers who could be barred from boarding aircraft under the Canadian no-fly list set to take effect next week.
Yves Duguay, director of security for Air Canada, told a public inquiry Thursday that his main concern in implementing the program is "the safety and security of our front-line staff and the customers at the check-in counter."
It's not that anybody fears a frustrated terrorist will launch an attack on the airport ticket line, said Duguay. It's simply that "an unruly situation" could develop if people are told they can't fly because their names are on the list.
"The situation could be very tense, and we need to have an authority figure in place to defuse that situation. So we want to make sure that we have a police presence."
Duguay offered his views to the inquiry headed by former Supreme Court justice John Major into to the 1985 Air India bombing. Although he's focusing on the downing of the jumbo jet 22 years ago, part of Major's mandate is also to examine current security measures to see if they're adequate to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
The no-fly list, drawn up by the federal government, is scheduled to come into force next Monday. Its aim is to keep anyone deemed a security threat from boarding a commercial air flight originating or stopping in Canada.
Unlike a similar U.S. list, which stood at 70,000 names at one point, the Canadian version is expected to contain fewer than 1,000 names. The hope is to avoid the pitfalls of the American list, which has generated thousands of complaints from travellers wrongly included on the roster of terrorist suspects.
Duguay said Air Canada supports the new list in principle. But he also indicated the airline hasn't received all the answers it wants from Transport Canada about how it will work in practice.
For example, he said, Transport officials have said only that they're consulting the RCMP and other police forces about making officers available in case of trouble at ticket counters.
Also uncertain is whether the airline can share the names on the Canadian list with authorities in other countries - for example, with police at an overseas airport if they're called to subdue an unruly passenger who's denied permission to board a Canada-bound flight.
"That's a point where we're not sure," said Duguay. "Our interpretation is that we would be allowed to pass on that information."
Less clear is whether Air Canada, or any other airline, could share the entire no-fly list with foreign authorities.
Brion Brandt, a Transport Canada official, testified last week that Ottawa could decide to share the list with other governments, but only if they explain what use they intend to make of the information.
Brandt also acknowledged, however, that foreign-based airlines could pass the list to their home governments, with or without Canada's approval.
That sparked concerns by federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who has since come under pressure to elaborate on her views at the inquiry. Major issued a subpoena earlier this week to compel her to testify, but called off enforcement efforts Thursday after Stoddart agreed to appear voluntarily.
The inquiry has also reached a deal with the International Air Transport Association, which has agreed to send witnesses to the commission after initially resisting the demand.
Air Canada was also reluctant to attend at first but reversed course after Major threatened the company with yet another subpoena.
On other subjects Thursday, Duguay voiced support for the use of armed RCMP officers as sky marshals on selected flights in Canada, brushing aside claims by critics who fear the practice could lead to dangerous mid-air shootouts.
Duguay, who spent 25 years as a Mountie before joining Air Canada, said the officers are well-trained and act as a deterrent to would-be attackers.
He was less enthusiastic about the use of so-called behavioural analysis to screen out passengers at the airport who appear to be acting strangely.
"It requires a lot of time, it requires a lot of training, and you need experts to conduct this type of questioning," said Duguay. If such programs aren't handled carefully, he warned, they degenerate into unacceptable racial profiling.
© The Canadian Press 2007
Friday » June 15 » 2007
Air Canada fears airport confrontations over no-fly list,
Jim Brown
Canadian Press
Friday, June 15, 2007
OTTAWA (CP) - The country's biggest airline says it's worried about confrontations with irate travellers who could be barred from boarding aircraft under the Canadian no-fly list set to take effect next week.
Yves Duguay, director of security for Air Canada, told a public inquiry Thursday that his main concern in implementing the program is "the safety and security of our front-line staff and the customers at the check-in counter."
It's not that anybody fears a frustrated terrorist will launch an attack on the airport ticket line, said Duguay. It's simply that "an unruly situation" could develop if people are told they can't fly because their names are on the list.
"The situation could be very tense, and we need to have an authority figure in place to defuse that situation. So we want to make sure that we have a police presence."
Duguay offered his views to the inquiry headed by former Supreme Court justice John Major into to the 1985 Air India bombing. Although he's focusing on the downing of the jumbo jet 22 years ago, part of Major's mandate is also to examine current security measures to see if they're adequate to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
The no-fly list, drawn up by the federal government, is scheduled to come into force next Monday. Its aim is to keep anyone deemed a security threat from boarding a commercial air flight originating or stopping in Canada.
Unlike a similar U.S. list, which stood at 70,000 names at one point, the Canadian version is expected to contain fewer than 1,000 names. The hope is to avoid the pitfalls of the American list, which has generated thousands of complaints from travellers wrongly included on the roster of terrorist suspects.
Duguay said Air Canada supports the new list in principle. But he also indicated the airline hasn't received all the answers it wants from Transport Canada about how it will work in practice.
For example, he said, Transport officials have said only that they're consulting the RCMP and other police forces about making officers available in case of trouble at ticket counters.
Also uncertain is whether the airline can share the names on the Canadian list with authorities in other countries - for example, with police at an overseas airport if they're called to subdue an unruly passenger who's denied permission to board a Canada-bound flight.
"That's a point where we're not sure," said Duguay. "Our interpretation is that we would be allowed to pass on that information."
Less clear is whether Air Canada, or any other airline, could share the entire no-fly list with foreign authorities.
Brion Brandt, a Transport Canada official, testified last week that Ottawa could decide to share the list with other governments, but only if they explain what use they intend to make of the information.
Brandt also acknowledged, however, that foreign-based airlines could pass the list to their home governments, with or without Canada's approval.
That sparked concerns by federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who has since come under pressure to elaborate on her views at the inquiry. Major issued a subpoena earlier this week to compel her to testify, but called off enforcement efforts Thursday after Stoddart agreed to appear voluntarily.
The inquiry has also reached a deal with the International Air Transport Association, which has agreed to send witnesses to the commission after initially resisting the demand.
Air Canada was also reluctant to attend at first but reversed course after Major threatened the company with yet another subpoena.
On other subjects Thursday, Duguay voiced support for the use of armed RCMP officers as sky marshals on selected flights in Canada, brushing aside claims by critics who fear the practice could lead to dangerous mid-air shootouts.
Duguay, who spent 25 years as a Mountie before joining Air Canada, said the officers are well-trained and act as a deterrent to would-be attackers.
He was less enthusiastic about the use of so-called behavioural analysis to screen out passengers at the airport who appear to be acting strangely.
"It requires a lot of time, it requires a lot of training, and you need experts to conduct this type of questioning," said Duguay. If such programs aren't handled carefully, he warned, they degenerate into unacceptable racial profiling.
© The Canadian Press 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Canada launches no-fly list in June
This is just one more piece in the construction of the Brave New World of post 9/11 society. If you can't see what evidence is used to put you on the list then there is little you can do to show it is wrong. Arar was listed in some raw data as an Al Qaeda member and the US actually decided he was in deporting him (rendering him) to Syria. We know that their evidence was often based upon false reports.
Canada to launch no-fly list in June
Who's on list – and how to appeal
Effective date: June 18
ID required: Air passengers within Canada who appear 12 or older must present one piece of government-issued photo ID that shows name, date of birth and gender, or two pieces of non-photo ID – one of which shows name, date of birth and gender.
How it works: The government will maintain a list of people deemed threats to airline safety. When someone listed tries to board, the airline informs Transport Canada. It will confirm any ban.
The list: To be compiled by a Transport Canada-led advisory group to include RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service representatives.
Who's on list: People deemed threats to airline safety, including members of terrorist groups and individuals convicted of one or more serious and life-threatening crimes against aviation security.
Appeal: People barred from flying can appeal for an independent assessment. If that fails, they can go to court.
'Any review is useless if you don't have enough information to contest it'
Joe Comartin, NDP MP
May 12, 2007 04:30 AM
Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–A Canadian "no-fly" list of people to be barred from boarding domestic and international airline flights is set to take effect June 18, just as the busy summer flying season gets underway.
The move, nearly six years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, amounts to a flight blacklist of people "reasonably suspected" by federal officials as immediate threats to the safety of commercial aircraft, passengers or crew.
Under the rules, as passengers check in for flights, whether at kiosks or counters, their names will be automatically screened against the government's list, known as the "Passenger Protect" program.
The no-fly list will be drawn up by Transport Canada, with input from the RCMP and CSIS.
If a name is red-flagged as a possible match with a name on the no-fly list, the traveller will be directed to a flight agent, who will contact Transport Canada for a decision on whether to allow boarding. Airlines are responsible for protecting the passenger's confidentiality.
People denied access to a flight will be able to challenge their inclusion on the list, but in the short haul, they will be grounded. And the airport or local police will be notified.
Critics say the plan will not make air travel safer, and will likely lead to the kinds of "false positive" identification of people that has plagued a similar list in the United States. The most celebrated example involved Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who was barred from boarding a flight when he was wrongly identified as being on the list. Infants have also been banned.
As well, critics worry that it will prove almost impossible for those wrongly included to have their names removed from the list.
The federal government says it will provide a "non-judicial and efficient" mechanism for individuals to appeal their listing through a Transport Canada "Office of Reconsideration."
That office "may" submit the file for review by an independent external adviser, who was not part of the initial identification of the name for the list. The adviser would be expected to make a recommendation to the minister on whether the person stays on the list within 30 working days.
And if the person still contests the decision, they "have the option of pursuing other legal avenues ... such as the Federal Court," say the documents. That presumably means first seeking the court's leave to apply for judicial review.
Details will be outlined in government regulations to be published next week, but Conservative Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day unveiled parts of the package via news release yesterday.
The new rules will apply to all passengers "who appear to be 12 years of age or older." The government says that is consistent with the definition of a child under Canadian law (Criminal Code and the Youth Criminal Justice Act).
Overseas travel already requires a passport. For domestic travel, passengers will require one piece of valid government-issued photo ID that shows name, date of birth and gender, such as a driver's licence or a passport; or two pieces of valid government-issued non-photo ID, at least one of which shows name, date of birth and gender, such as a birth certificate.
Lawyer Lorne Waldman, who represented Maher Arar, added that until now, the Canadian government has appeared to have an informal list that forced people like Arar through extra security until he was exonerated of all suspicion by Justice Dennis O'Connor.
"Maher, every time he flew and until the (O'Connor) report was released always had to go through extra security screening. Clearly there was some kind of list being used. We believe it was likely just Canadian airlines using the U.S. list."
Arar, an Ottawa engineer, was detained in 2002 during a stopover at New York's JFK airport and sent to Syria where he was held without charges.
Waldman questioned whether any process for challenging the listing of an individual's name could work, given that intelligence information would be kept secret on the basis of national security.
The information for each listed person is to be reviewed at least once every 30 days, the government says.
"The consequences to people in our society today – especially where being able to move from point A to point B is often essential for people to earn their livelihood – can be quite serious," said Waldman.
New Democrat MP Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh) said it was clear from past committee testimony by government officials that there is no intent to allow the government's information to be viewed by the individual targeted "or give you any reasonable mechanism to get off the list."
"My first question is who are the independent people going to be and are they going to have access to the information – or are they simply going to have an intelligence officer come forward and say `We have information this person is a threat and it's national security information so that's all we're going to tell you.' That's exactly what I would expect would happen.
"Any review is useless if you don't have enough information to contest it."
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has already expressed concerns about the government's plan, warning in August 2005 that it could be a "serious intrusion into the rights of travellers in Canada, the rights of privacy and the rights of freedom of movement."
She was unavailable for comment yesterday, but her spokesperson Florence Nguyen said "our views are still the same.
Canada to launch no-fly list in June
Who's on list – and how to appeal
Effective date: June 18
ID required: Air passengers within Canada who appear 12 or older must present one piece of government-issued photo ID that shows name, date of birth and gender, or two pieces of non-photo ID – one of which shows name, date of birth and gender.
How it works: The government will maintain a list of people deemed threats to airline safety. When someone listed tries to board, the airline informs Transport Canada. It will confirm any ban.
The list: To be compiled by a Transport Canada-led advisory group to include RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service representatives.
Who's on list: People deemed threats to airline safety, including members of terrorist groups and individuals convicted of one or more serious and life-threatening crimes against aviation security.
Appeal: People barred from flying can appeal for an independent assessment. If that fails, they can go to court.
'Any review is useless if you don't have enough information to contest it'
Joe Comartin, NDP MP
May 12, 2007 04:30 AM
Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–A Canadian "no-fly" list of people to be barred from boarding domestic and international airline flights is set to take effect June 18, just as the busy summer flying season gets underway.
The move, nearly six years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, amounts to a flight blacklist of people "reasonably suspected" by federal officials as immediate threats to the safety of commercial aircraft, passengers or crew.
Under the rules, as passengers check in for flights, whether at kiosks or counters, their names will be automatically screened against the government's list, known as the "Passenger Protect" program.
The no-fly list will be drawn up by Transport Canada, with input from the RCMP and CSIS.
If a name is red-flagged as a possible match with a name on the no-fly list, the traveller will be directed to a flight agent, who will contact Transport Canada for a decision on whether to allow boarding. Airlines are responsible for protecting the passenger's confidentiality.
People denied access to a flight will be able to challenge their inclusion on the list, but in the short haul, they will be grounded. And the airport or local police will be notified.
Critics say the plan will not make air travel safer, and will likely lead to the kinds of "false positive" identification of people that has plagued a similar list in the United States. The most celebrated example involved Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who was barred from boarding a flight when he was wrongly identified as being on the list. Infants have also been banned.
As well, critics worry that it will prove almost impossible for those wrongly included to have their names removed from the list.
The federal government says it will provide a "non-judicial and efficient" mechanism for individuals to appeal their listing through a Transport Canada "Office of Reconsideration."
That office "may" submit the file for review by an independent external adviser, who was not part of the initial identification of the name for the list. The adviser would be expected to make a recommendation to the minister on whether the person stays on the list within 30 working days.
And if the person still contests the decision, they "have the option of pursuing other legal avenues ... such as the Federal Court," say the documents. That presumably means first seeking the court's leave to apply for judicial review.
Details will be outlined in government regulations to be published next week, but Conservative Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day unveiled parts of the package via news release yesterday.
The new rules will apply to all passengers "who appear to be 12 years of age or older." The government says that is consistent with the definition of a child under Canadian law (Criminal Code and the Youth Criminal Justice Act).
Overseas travel already requires a passport. For domestic travel, passengers will require one piece of valid government-issued photo ID that shows name, date of birth and gender, such as a driver's licence or a passport; or two pieces of valid government-issued non-photo ID, at least one of which shows name, date of birth and gender, such as a birth certificate.
Lawyer Lorne Waldman, who represented Maher Arar, added that until now, the Canadian government has appeared to have an informal list that forced people like Arar through extra security until he was exonerated of all suspicion by Justice Dennis O'Connor.
"Maher, every time he flew and until the (O'Connor) report was released always had to go through extra security screening. Clearly there was some kind of list being used. We believe it was likely just Canadian airlines using the U.S. list."
Arar, an Ottawa engineer, was detained in 2002 during a stopover at New York's JFK airport and sent to Syria where he was held without charges.
Waldman questioned whether any process for challenging the listing of an individual's name could work, given that intelligence information would be kept secret on the basis of national security.
The information for each listed person is to be reviewed at least once every 30 days, the government says.
"The consequences to people in our society today – especially where being able to move from point A to point B is often essential for people to earn their livelihood – can be quite serious," said Waldman.
New Democrat MP Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh) said it was clear from past committee testimony by government officials that there is no intent to allow the government's information to be viewed by the individual targeted "or give you any reasonable mechanism to get off the list."
"My first question is who are the independent people going to be and are they going to have access to the information – or are they simply going to have an intelligence officer come forward and say `We have information this person is a threat and it's national security information so that's all we're going to tell you.' That's exactly what I would expect would happen.
"Any review is useless if you don't have enough information to contest it."
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has already expressed concerns about the government's plan, warning in August 2005 that it could be a "serious intrusion into the rights of travellers in Canada, the rights of privacy and the rights of freedom of movement."
She was unavailable for comment yesterday, but her spokesperson Florence Nguyen said "our views are still the same.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)