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Oct. 6, 2005. 01:00 AM
Public safety: What's in a name?
Plenty, if you happen to be Muslim and on a no-fly European list, say
Heather Bakken
Canada will soon have another tool in its counterterrorism arsenal to combat
security threats coming into the country. The European Commission announced
this week it will sign an agreement with Canada to authorize the sharing of
information on passenger airline manifests, or "no-fly" lists. Canada's new
deal with the European Union follows a similar agreement signed between the
U.S. and the EU in 2003.
At first glance it appears to be a protective measure aimed at guarding
passengers from terrorists across the pond. But it could be part of a larger
security issue whittling away at the bulwark of Canada's sovereignty.
Under the latest agreement, airlines flying from the EU to Canada will
transfer selected passenger data to assist authorities in identifying
passengers suspected of being security threats.
This move follows a similar one in Canada nearly four years ago when the
government amended the Aeronautics Act to allow air carriers to provide
basic passenger and crew data to foreign governments, namely, the U.S.
The Sept. 11 attacks against America created a global sense of urgency in
dealing with terrorism. Many of the 9/11 hijackers were on a watch-list
database without any travel restrictions.
Richard Reid, better known as the shoe-bomber, boarded a New-York bound
plane in Paris without detection - in spite of being a person of interest to
the British and the French. The post-9/11 atmosphere created a consensus
that something needed to be done to internationalize watch-lists.
Ottawa has implemented a plethora of new laws and tighter security measures,
including no-fly lists.
Wesley Wark, an expert in international security issues at the University of
Toronto, says the desire to build an international no-fly list has been
primarily driven by U.S. security concerns after 9/11, which he likens to
"bolting the door after the horse has left the barn."
Wark maintains the new agreement between Canada and the EU is part of the
broader effort to find a way to create an appropriate database for
individuals who circulate in the international realm of travel, including
air, land and sea.
The term used in the industry is passenger name recognition, or PNR. Wark
says PNR works in theory, but when put to the test, "it will only catch
somebody like the shoe-bomber."
Feisal Joseph, a former federal prosecutor who is now legal counsel for the
Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), insists PNR is a thinly veiled disguise for
racial profiling. "If the government is focusing on finding the needle in
the haystack, their solution is to burn the whole haystack, and, in our
view, the Muslim community's name is on the haystack."
The CIC has already identified at least one infant on Canada's no-fly
list.Joseph believes there will be many more mistakes because, "In the
Muslim community, a name like Mohammed Atta (one of the 9/11 hijackers) is
as common as John Smith."
Joseph argues all terrorists should be punished, whether Muslim or not, but
the protocol for any database should be linked to a criminal profile, not a
racial one.
"It's not just the inconvenience about not being able to get onto a plane,"
says Joseph, "it's scarier than that ... it's affecting people's ability to
do business, to visit dying family members ... it's a tragedy."
As thousands of Canadian Muslims prepare for the hajj, the CIC is advising
those intending to make the trek to Mecca not to travel through the United
States.
While Joseph questions the legality of the no-fly list, which he says goes
against the spirit and letter of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Wark
suggests there is a serious crossover effect that could impact Canada's
autonomy over security.
Ottawa is currently at loggerheads with the U.S. over sharing information
from domestic flight manifests.
The joint Smart Border Action Plan lays the groundwork for co-ordination,
information-sharing and enforcement.
But the U.S. insists it should have access to all passenger data for any
Canadian flight that passes into American airspace which, according to NAV
Canada, accounts for 75 per cent of all domestic flights. (NAV Canada is a
private corporation that owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation
service.)
The federal inquiry into Maher Arar's extraordinary rendition exposed
Canada's predilection to sharing confidential information with the US.
And the results demonstrate just how far American authorities will go in the
name of Homeland Security.
If Canada provides those same authorities with no-fly lists for domestic
flights, what's to stop U.S. security agents from detaining Canadian
passengers not only flying through the U.S. (as was the case with Arar), but
flying over the U.S.?
Wark says there has been a lot of progress in Canada's approach to public
security, but adds, "They're only at the beginning of how to figure this
out. They have to find a way to construct an appropriate database without
trampling on citizens' privacy rights."
There is no public record of who is on the no-fly list. The only way to find
out if you're on it is to attempt to board a flight, at which point you're
at the mercy of the authorities.
Many suggest Canada's Muslim community faces a culture of suspicion.
But, potentially, any person even loosely associated with a terrorist
organization recognized by the Canadian government is at risk, a shopping
list that envelops Sikhs, Basque separatists, Marxist-Leninist Kurds,
Japanese, Colombians and Jews.
Which begs the question: In the cultural mosaic known as Canada, how many
Canadians with the name Singh, Javier or Nakamura will be suspected as
transnational terrorists based on a passenger manifest?
No one would argue that a terrorist should be allowed to board an airplane.
But profiling Canadians based on name recognition should not serve as a
protective measure in and of itself.
It's incumbent on the government to act on good intelligence, not sheer
coincidence. At the very least, Ottawa must stand up to the U.S. by refusing
to hand over confidential passenger information.
What's in a name? Hopefully not Canada's sovereignty, because the
alternative doesn't smell as sweet.
_____
Heather Bakken is a Toronto journalist at the CBC.
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