JUL '07 - The "Passenger Protect" program went into effect in Canada, as anticipated, at the end of June 2007. This is the ‘no-fly list’ applied to “immediate threats to the safety of commercial aircraft, passengers or crew,” drawn up by Transport Canada (Hon. Laurence Cannon, minister) with input from the RCMP and CSIS (Canada’s civil intelligence service). The 'Passenger Protect' program derives from regulatory power under the Public Safety Act (Hon. Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety) and will work surreptitiously to deny access to a flight at the moment of boarding.

The program applies to domestic or international flights boarding in Canada and air travelers have no idea in advance if they are on the newly conceived list until they face a ‘moment of realization’ at the last step, obtaining the boarding pass. Reports are, the list is composed of anywhere from 500 to 2,000 people. Furthermore, Canada's no-fly list will spread far and wide because names are distributed and shared with other agencies and nations.

It is a list, a composition, per se, containing suspects under reasonable grounds (via informants, and other inputs), for the aforementioned threats, said Martin Rudner, on Goldhawk Live, Jun 24 07. Professor Rudner called the new power, “an instrument of the government for national security." Rudner teaches one of the few intelligence studies classes held at any Canadian university. He tacitly agreed proponents of the no-fly list might hear complaints; nevertheless, "the screening of passengers and luggage is essential.”

In fact, Rudner emphasized an existing, glaring intelligence failure in Canada, "Currently cargo is not examined," not yet, four years after the start of debate about security measures in cargo handling (and 22 years after Air India 182 was bombed from the cargo hold, which killed 329 people aboard a Boeing 747 -- 307 passengers and 22 crew, mostly Canadians.

Rudner said the no-fly list will only apply to terrorist threats, "That is what it is supposed to deal with," when the government announced it was getting ready, in May. Roch Tasse, another guest on Goldhawk Live’s season finale, Jun 24 07, and works for an international civil liberties watchdog group, argued the existing criminal code contains all the measures necessary to deal with threats posed to airline travel.

The passenger protection program, meanwhile, misses all other forms of public transport. He suggested the no fly list is an unprecedented rule over a particular activity, flight travel, and new, unexpected, and possibly unconstitutional discretionary powers granted to the ministers of public safety and that of transport.

Roch decries this action taken by government outside parliamentary debate and beyond judicial review and suggested issuing powers of this magnitude should be debated. Most callers to Goldhawk agreed, and Rudner replied, proactive preventative measures are required to fight terrorism, "Yes we have conspiracy laws but they are not designed to deal with terrorism." The government is obliged to act on behalf of citizens to intercept people who are traveling to places to make and spread terrorist plots, he argued.

Among the array of arguments from Roch and phone-in callers, one expressed a false sense of security would supplant real security measures, because, what kind of terrorist (except the dumbest of them) would travel under their own name anyway? Another caller prefers training for personnel at airport check-ins, something like the Israeli model which teaches people to observe passengers in line-ups and watch for body language and behaviour, then, when suspicious people appear, pull them out of line for a thorough interview.

Under the Canadian rules, as passengers check in for flights, ‘whether at kiosks or counters,’ their names will be automatically screened against the government's list. A possible match with a name on the no-fly list causes the traveller to be directed to a flight agent, who contacts Transport Canada for a decision on whether to allow boarding.

According to the plan, the airlines are responsible for protecting the passenger's confidentiality. People denied access to a flight will be able to challenge the listing, and have it independently adjudicated within 30 days. They will be grounded in the short term and airport or local police will be notified.

The public (from several previous news reports) have expressed worry about false positive identifications and difficulty thereafter getting removed from such a list. Maher Arar’s ordeal is minty fresh in the minds of Canadians, and few are readily assured by a Public Safety department "Office of Reconsideration" to help the mistakenly listed no-fly travelers pursue removal from the list.