The Toronto Sun reports on a case of pat down embarrassment (Nov 24) in Toronto, Canada. Is the uproar spreading? Canada has the naked body scanners in 16 airports and apparently wants them in 44 ASAP.

On a side note, Jim and I did dozens of TV, radio and print interviews with Canadian media in the run up to Opt Out Day. In the wake of Opt Out Day, The Globe and Mail published an editorial asking if Canadians are too meek about the scanning and groping.

Christine McCann filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority after her daughter was subjected to a humiliating full-body pat-down at a Sudbury airport.

On Sunday, McCann and her 15-year-old daughter, Carly Finn, were heading home to Pickering after a weekend visit with McCann’s father who is dying of lung cancer in a Sudbury hospital.

A CATSA security guard decided to randomly pick Finn for a search that included breasts and inner thighs.

“I asked if it could be done in a private room to lessen the embarrassment and the security guard told me there were no such facilities,” McCann recalled.

However, the Greater Sudbury Airport — where the search occurred — has a private room for such pat-downs, insisted airport spokesman Terra Glabb.

“The security is contracted out (by CATSA). We do have a private room. I don’t know what went down,” Glabb said.

McCann said she was “extremely pissed” when she found out Wednesday that there was a private room that could have been used for the search.

“I just went online and filed a formal complaint with CATSA. Why not just use the private room if they had one? Knuckle heads. Hats off to our wonderful government,” McCann said.

“It humiliated her to have everyone watching. My daughter is very shy and she was so embarrassed she will never fly again.”

McCann added she feels like she let her daughter down watching her being violated.

She is heartbroken that Finn won’t fly again because her grandfather doesn’t have much time left.

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16 Responses to Uproar over Pat Downs Spreads to Canada

  1. Robin says:

    That poor girl! I am glad maybe Canadians are gonna start stomping their feet as well!

    • Money talks. Make yours scream. Don’t fly. Don’t visit. Cut off purchases to US based business (and tell them why). Do every thing you can to make an impact on trade & business and follow that up with writing your MPs, and the company’s affected.

      A business may see a change in bookings / sales, but unless you help them connect the dots, some analyst removed from the situation looking at sales charts may not know the true reason your money just walked away.

  2. I’ve flown out of Sudbury before. No more. This is outrageous.

  3. randy mcbride says:

    A charter pilot who I am contracting for private flight arrangements told me today that his charter pilots association tracks the amount of reservations and plane rentals reported by its member pilots. The association reports a 51% increase in November. My pilot believes that much of that increase is directly attributable to TSA’s criminalization of the flying public. The pilot told me that one of the comment’s he’d heard was that first class passengers don’t see the use of paying for business class travel if they are still subjected to the new TSA screening methods. My second comment is that I asked a food service manager at an airport recently if his foodservice workers or the people who clean the planes are required to be screened every morning before working in the terminals and on the planes. He told me that they were NOT screened. So this is the ultimate hypocracy. The flying public is criminalized, but a person CLEANING THE AIRPLANE isn’t screened for explosives?
    Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • bob says:

      You’ve just discovered the method of the next terror plot. The response for which will be the implementation of full body cavity searches for the traveling public.

      • but not of course for workers. Because the workers are potentially union members (they probably get a sweetheart exemption for security scanning just like they do for the new Health Care system).

    • Exactly correct. A maintenance worker can waltz on to a plane, plant 10 kilos of explosives in a food cart, and walk out with no one knowing.

      TSA Security is like Hollywood; fake and just for show.

  4. ALVIS JENKINS says:

    I agree that all of us as domestic USA citizens are being violated of our Constitutional rights and are being treated every time we fly as a terrorist suspect. There are many other avenues as already mentioned that a terrorist could have a field day with passengers on a commercial aircraft. Explosives is not the only thing to cause a fatal flight on a commercial aircraft. But while I could list many such siuations, it would only be fuel for those would be terrorists out there who have the freedom to the internet. I believe that perhaps the best way to end this scenario is to create private air travel. The big commercial airlines are collaborating with Big Brother supposedly because they are recipients of Federal Funding, the culprit to all failures in today’s society and business world. We need limited Government as the Constitutio dictates.

  5. ALVIS JENKINS says:

    LET’S ALL SEE THAT A BILL IS ENACTED THAT REQUIRES THE PRESIDENT TO BE FULLY PATTED DOWN EVERY TIME HE BOARDS ANY COMMERCIAL OR MILITARY AIRCRAFT.

  6. ALVIS JENKINS says:

    If you are really opposed to TSA procedures at the airport, it is suggested that before you leave for the airport (Two hours before departure) that you eat a healthy amount of beans and frankfurters, some pickled eggs, some brockworst, a couple of beers and anything else that works as well. You may really be surprised how swiftly you pass through airport security. But remember that you must be pleasant on the airplane or you might be removed.

  7. Robin says:

    I am choosing not to fly period….not until things become sane again. I am appalled that Canada follows along like a stupid little puppy dog with everything the big bully down south does.
    There is no terrorist threat in Canada, never has been and if we go back to being a peacekeeping neutral nation, there never will be. As long as we go into fake wars with the USA over oil and heroine, as long as innocent iraqis and afghanis may die as a result of our stupidity, then we may be subject to a backlash.
    I hope enough people refuse to fly that it hurts the airports and airlines bottom line, it seems the bottom line is always more important than anything else. If you choose to be molested let them know strongly that you object to the violation of your body and privacy. I like the guy who printed a copy of the US Bill of Rights and taped it to his chest, why not roll up the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and stick it in the front of your pants? Read it out loud to those monster TSA agents, maybe they are unaware of what it says.

    • Cindy says:

      The scanners are not about security. They are about big business making big bucks. Thatvis why they are being placed in airports – so everyone involved can make big bucks. So what if Americans and low level TSA workers who are exposed to radiation get cancer in twenty years? Nobody will be able to prove it was from the scanners. These people are laughing all the way to the bank.

  8. “McCann added she feels like she let her daughter down watching her being violated.”

    Unfortunately she DID let her daughter down. Who is the guardian, the protector of a child if not her / his parents? What parent sits and passively allows the government to humiliate and touch their minor child? Not a responsible parent. Not the kind of parent I want to be.

  9. Cindy says:

    I would never have just stood there and let this happen to my daughter. Never.

    • Unfortunately, unless you like being berated by rent-a-cops with barely enough training to recognize a dark spot on a screen, then your only option to protect is to avoid. That is my family’s decision as well.

  10. [...] The percentage of damaged, corrupt, and/or sociopathic individuals in the TSA seems too high.  My daughter is very shy and she was so embarrassed she will never fly again,TSA Defends Screening of Indian Ambassador.  What is wrong with these people, where are their [...]

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