Canada’s debated topic no-fly list discussed in Toronto, Ontario
Michael, 16-year-old son had been on a no-fly list since he was just four or five years old, said his mother Natalie Pierre.
“We were coming back from the U.S. and customs agents pulled us aside. They didn’t tell us anything, except for the person who took us into a back room, who asked us what we did wrong,” Pierre said following the event in Markham, Ont.
Among the various topics discussed on different security issues, the no-fly list was the dominant topic.
The issue of no-fly list drew the attention of the public after a six-year-old boy, Adam Ahmed, was flagged as being on the no-fly list last year.
Goodale clarified that some kids who bear the same names as adults were flagged.
Pierre told The Canadian Press that exactly the same thing happened in her son’s case.
Only in about 2011 Pierre came to know her son Michael shared a name with someone on the list, she said.
Since then she said her family had been trying to resolve this issue with different government agencies.
Goodale’s statement in the meeting that it would take about 18 months for the new system to be set up was opposed my many parents who said the period was too long.
The Liberal government had announcement in June asking the Passenger Protect Inquiries Office to help people to speed up the process during check-in.
But families with young children continued to experience delays even after they had explained their cases to the office, Khadija Cajee, a spokeswoman for the group known as the No Fly List Kids, said.
Pierre said she’d be happy to see a solution within 18 months, especially one that would help adults who are wrongly flagged, as well as kids.
But in the meantime, she said her family had found other solutions.
She said her son got a compensation number from the United States which had convinced ticketing agents that he was not a threat
She also added that these ticketing agents also call the airline ahead of time which proves helpful.
“But it’s just such an inefficient system,” she said.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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