Auditor General Sheila Fraser has made the assertive announcement that despite billions of tax dollars being poured into airport security over the past few years, an act as simple as a background check on the people who work there are run without much thought at all.

If at all…

Day to day, we are led to believe that there is a chance that authorities would not know if those working behind airport security lines were terrorists or drug smugglers.

Fraser’s latest report, zeroing in on wasted government money, includes an account of airport security clearance being granted to someone with assault and weapons convictions, and someone who was under investigation for a murder relating to drug smuggling at a large airport.

I for one can forgive any taxpayers and travellers who can’t help but wonder how this is even remotely possible in 2009.

Since the horrific events of September 11, 2001 governments have piled tremendous amounts of money on baggage scanning machines, bomb sniffing dogs, and staff to frisk flyers.

All travellers have been forced to endure long lines and other forms of inconvenience. As well as having their luggage checked to prevent the use nail clippers and other weapons of mass destruction that may be concealed within.

Unfortunately, it seems that all those who wish to execute attacks have to do is lie on their resume, and show up for work.

O, Canada.

And to top it off, it seems that this charade has been going on for years.

Sun Media reported that in 2004, Fraser ran a sample of airport employees through security checks and came up with bikers, convicted criminals and others obviously not suited to the high-security areas of airports.

This pushed Transport Canada to ask RCMP officers to review all 125, 000 Canadian airport employees with security passes.

This turned up employees who had been arrested and were facing criminal charges, and one had connections to organized crime.

Since the time of the 2004 audit, Fraser says Transport Canada has improved its screening process, having rejected a quarter of all applicants, most of which not being able to verify details of their last five years.

It turns that even slight positive improvements weren’t thorough. The RCMP still found 22 people who security clearance was subsequently denied or terminated.

And after all of that, a 2008 RCMP investigation of organized crime at airports reported that more than 60 employees with security clearance had links to criminal activity.

All of this information could certainly make someone consider alternate transportation choices for their next vacation.

How could something like this take place in Canada? A land that is full of cops and bureaucrats.

Well according to Fraser, “Transport Canada and the RCMP are still not sharing criminal intelligence information effectively.”

Doesn’t that make you feel warm inside?

Fraser also admits that when Transport Canada submits a job application to the RCMP for security checks, information of the applicant’s spouse, ex-spouse, or common-law partner is blacked out.

The RCMP regards this information as necessary to complete the assessment, but Transport Canada believes in the Privacy Act, which prohibits the department from releasing this information, Fraser reported.

Meanwhile, the RCMP flags anyone in its police database of criminals, but they don’t feel the need to share other intelligence it has on airport job applicants.

I guess we all can’t get along.

But why jeopardize public safety?

Related posts:

1. The Dziekanski Inquiry: Canada’s International Claim To Shame A confused and frustrated immigrant flew into Vancouver from Poland...
2. Helena Guergis vs. Air Canada, PEI, and Airport Security – an Uncomfortable Diva Moment Flying can be stressful, and I suppose that being an...
3. Harper Government Names Realtor as Royal Canadian Mounted Police Watchdog On January 18, the Harper government announced the appointment of...
4. RCMP Deny Harassing Olympic Protesters, I.S.U. Vancouver 2010 Mafia Security Tactics, and Trampling of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “Intimidation Olympic Style” Senior R.C.M.P. Officials can deny harassing Vancouver Olympic protesters all...
5. Stephen Harper Has Proven Again That Political Experience and Political Toughness matters:Machiavelli Would be Proud In an earlier posting, I had discussed why certain politicians...

Tags: airports, Auditor General, canada, organized crime, rcmp, Sheila Fraser, Transport Canada

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 10:32 am and is filed under Our Country. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.