Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

CBC reports that Pearson airport stopped screening bags, and the sky didn’t fall on our head!

In the four days following Thanksgiving, airport screeners working for the private security company GARDA were on a work-to-rule campaign, hand-searching all carry-on luggage and creating long lines of passengers.

Hand searches of some luggage were abandoned during the October labour dispute.

The screeners say their managers took over to clear the lines, allowing about 250,000 passengers to rush through with minimal or no screening.

Federal regulations stipulate that at least 25 per cent of carry-on luggage must be searched by hand.

So as long as 74.9% of baggage goes unchecked, we’re safe, but if you cross over into 75%, then we’re doomed, doomed!?

Security expert James Lewis said it was only by chance that a disaster was diverted.

“If terrorists had known that in those three days that their baggage wasn’t going to be searched, that would have been bad. But fortunately, it looks like people lucked out and no one happened to be testing the system right at that moment.”

I would hope Blogging Tories take that line from a CBC writer, and flog them over the head with it. “Only by chance that a disaster was diverted“? Where do you think they diverted the disaster to? Did the diverted disaster land safely or disastrously elsewhere? Could they wave their hands in panic any harder? Do they know what the word diverted means? Have they heard of the words “avoided”, “averted”, or “hyperbole”?

Is this what passes for front page news on CBC.ca these days? Well, I guess it is news since it confirms what I’ve been saying about Canada’s transport safety. TSA at airports is turning our free country into a police state where they’ll take your maple syrup or body butter away. Excessive security just causes complacency, lineups, and anger in airports. The Work To Rule campaign demonstrated that quite nicely.

And does security “expert” Mr. Lewis realize that we have NO WAY TO TELL if terrorists didn’t test airport security that day? They could have done a dry run, or put something on a plane (maybe snakes *gasp*) to use later. Obviously we have to ground any and all planes that flew through Pearson on that day and tear them apart looking for box cutters and snakes. Let’s do it during the busiest part of the Christmas season so passengers feel safe.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian air transport security authority — the federal organization that oversees airport screening — says in fact all passenger luggage was properly checked during that October work slowdown.

Well there you go — CBC and Mr. Lewis were concerned about nothing. Return to Code Yellow.

However, she said, she has not seen the Transport Canada inspection report.

Oh, no! So she’s probably wrong — back to panic mode. Back to Code Orange, on the double!

Sources say Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon is aware of the situation but is refusing to comment.

I’m not surprised, given his tendency to fly private jets and ignore legitimate concerns written to his office. Read more about that here, including how my Conservative Member of Parliament didn’t get a response from the Transport Minister too.

UPDATE: He’s launched an inquiry? Holy cow, why not just ask if we need that level of “security” in the first place?
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Merry Christmas, and drive safely this holiday season. If the terrorists have figured out how to drive drunk, they’ll get short prison terms, and kill more Canadians than ever before!