Mounties, Transport Canada Team Up To Boost Airport Security
Posted April 11, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Mounties and Transport Canada are teaming up to crack down on organized crime and other threats at Canadian airports, following stinging criticism from Canada’s auditor-general.
Transport Canada and the RCMP announced Saturday they signed an information-sharing agreement to conduct expanded criminal background checks for workers with access to secure areas at Canada’s airports.
The announcement came less than two weeks after Auditor-General Sheila Fraser warned in a report that suspicious people, some with links to organized crime, were working in secure areas at airports. She pointed the finger at poor co-operation between Transport Canada and the Mounties.
Her report came on the heels of an RCMP examination of hundreds of police investigations at Canada’s eight largest airports. The RCMP concluded the airports had been infiltrated by 58 crime groups.
The RCMP had terminated an information-sharing deal with Transport Canada in December 2007.
In her report, Fraser said part of the reason for the termination may have been the fallout from the Maher Arar inquiry, which chastised the Mounties for sharing information, some of it questionable, with American authorities.
“The memorandum of understanding between the RCMP and Transport Canada regarding information sharing was terminated by the RCMP on Dec. 31, 2007, as it no longer complied with ministerial directions or with the recommendations of the (Arar Commission),” she said.
She also noted that the Mounties were leery of sharing information with Transport Canada because of worries it might disclose police intelligence details to people without clearance.
In turn, she said Transport Canada was wary of sharing some personal information about applicants with the RCMP because of concerns about privacy.
Under the new deal signed Wednesday, Transport Canada will be able to base decisions on granting security clearance for workers on more complete data from a broader range of intelligence sources.
The RCMP will be able to check employees seeking passes in restricted areas against 10 different criminal databases.
An Interpol database, with police information from 187 countries, will also be consulted as part of background checks.
The new deal also comes just days after Transport Minister John Baird and Senator Colin Kenny tested security at the country’s largest airport – Toronto’s Pearson International Airport – and Baird was able to walk unchallenged onto the tarmac.
Although both men had been issued security passes, Kenney said they were asked to show then only once, when leaving the tarmac.
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority pointed the finger of blame at the RCMP officers assigned, saying they did not “maintain visual contact at all times.”
Photo credit: THOMAS CHENG/AFP/Getty Images
