Report Raises Canadian Air Security Concerns

There is little screening of charter and corporate flights at Canadian airports, which potentially could allow terrorists to “use such aircraft as suicide weapons, or for dispersal of chemical/biological weapons,” according to a report issued last year (see GSN, Nov. 3, 2005).

An independent panel prepared the report for Canada’s transportation department, The Ottawa Citizen reported.

The panel found that passenger flights carry roughly 70 percent of all air cargo in the country, and that it is essentially not screened before loading (see GSN, Jan. 18).

Airport terminals could offer an attractive target to terrorists, the report states.  Terrorists might initiate a small security breach in a secured preboarding area, forcing passengers to return to main concourses to be screened again, according to one scenario.  The large number of people then would “create a target-rich environment” for attackers who could enter the concourse through the front door, the report states.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority complained in the report of lack of access to government intelligence that could be crucial to securing the country’s airports, the Citizen reported.

“CATSA has made clear a degree of dissatisfaction with its access to intelligence that it considers essential to its operations,” the report states.  “CATSA emphasized that intelligence is a necessary tool and a specific type of information that it requires to help it gain a more precise picture of what it on the radar screen.”

Airports filed similar concerns.  The complaints were seemingly directed at Transport Canada, which cooperates with intelligence services to provide information to the security authority, airport authorities and air carriers.

“Transport Canada consistently mismanages airports when it comes to security,” said Senate National Security and Defense Committee Chairman Colin Kenny.  “Why would the right hand of government hobble the left hand — it makes absolutely no sense.”

The panel recommended that the security authority continue to receive all necessary intelligence (Ian Macleod, The Ottawa Citizen, Jan. 20).

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