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| Ottawa reviewing allegations veiled passengers boarded flight without showing their faces |
| News - Global |
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MONTREAL — A 45-second YouTube video showing two niqab-wearing women boarding an Air Canada flight without showing their faces at Montreal’s Trudeau airport is creating a buzz on the Internet. And it has elicited a strongly worded statement from the Canadian government. “The situation is deeply disturbing and poses a serious threat to the security of the air travelling public,” Federal Transport Minister John Baird said in a statement issued Sunday. He has instructed his department to look into the matter and report back. “If our current security policies in this area are deemed to be lacking, our government will take the necessary steps to protect the safety and security of the travelling public,” he said. He did not specifically mention the YouTube video in the statement. When contacted, Air Canada, which is aware of the video, would not confirm that the women in question were not visually matched to their passports before boarding the plane. Nor would the airline say whether the employee was reprimanded. The grainy video, presumably picked up by a cellphone camera, was captured by a British tourist on July 11 and posted two days later. It shows a man accompanied by four women boarding a flight from Montreal to London. Two of the women are wearing niqabs, which block everything but the person’s eyes, and two are wearing hijabs, head scarves that leave the face exposed. Once the man presented all their passports, one niqab-wearing woman walked past the Air Canada agent, presumably without being asked to remove her face covering to confirm her identity. The other niqab-wearing woman passes the clerk at the beginning of the video. The authenticity of the clip has been called into question by numerous online commenters on YouTube. They say that because numerous jump cuts occur, it is not clear whether parts of the video were cut out. One commenter wrote that the video “looks like it went through a ‘slap chop’ machine.” The Air Canada agent, who checks boarding passes before passengers board the plane, does appear to momentarily turn her head toward the niqab-wearing woman after she passes, but then quickly turns her attention to the next passengers. Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, says the issue has become “sensationalized.” “It is much ado about nothing,” he said. “If she (Air Canada agent) thought she was satisfied, we shouldn’t second-guess this person.” He added that all the details of the case aren’t known, and that if the women were asked to remove their niqabs, their religion “demands” that they co-operate. Before boarding an international flight, all passengers must provide a valid passport, according to Transport Canada’s Identity Screening Regulations. “The verification of passengers’ identification is already a practice followed by most major air carriers in Canada,” the regulations read. So is Air Canada one of these air carriers? The company says yes. “We comply with Transport Canada regulations requiring passengers to present government-issued photo ID before boarding,” said Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur. Air Canada agents are trained to verify the identities of passengers in “a private area away from other passengers, as required for religious or medical reasons,” according to Arthur, She said Air Canada is aware of the video and it has since reminded agents of all security procedures. She also mentioned that all passengers go through strict security checks before boarding a flight. “In Canada, airline passenger screening is the responsibility of CATSA (Canadian Air Transport Security Authority) and passengers have already undergone multiple security checks before arriving at the gate,” she said. In the almost-200 online comments about the video on YouTube, viewers appeared divided. While many criticize what they view as lax security measures putting travellers in danger, many others say that the only role of the agent at the gate is to make sure the name on the boarding pass matches the name on the piece of identification. They add that the initial security checks are much more rigorous. The wearing of the niqab has been a controversial and divisive topic in Quebec in recent months. This year, a woman wearing a niqab was thrown out of a French-language course after refusing to remove it. Since a new provincial law was passed in March, women wearing niqabs are now unable to obtain services from, or work for, the Quebec government without first removing the covering. August 3, 2010 Jamie McCallum source: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ottawa+reviewing+allegations+veiled+passengers+boarded+flight+without/3350505/story.html |
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