The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is calling on the Federal Government to abandon plans to introduce full body scanners until appropriate privacy safeguards can be guaranteed. Minister of Transport, John Baird, announced this afternoon that the scanners, which produce strikingly graphic images of subjects’ clothingless bodies, will be introduced at 8 Canadian airports in the near future. The announcement comes in the wake of increased fears about airline security following a terrorist attempt on an intercontinental Delta Airlines flight on December 25, 2009.
“The notion that air travellers may have to essentially be stripped naked as a pre-condition to boarding an aircraft is very worrisome. Unless travellers can be provided with adequate assurances that their privacy will be properly protected, these screening devices should not even be considered,” said Nathalie Des Rosiers, General Counsel of the CCLA. Des Rosiers added that, “the government must, prior to subjecting people to intrusive search measures, prove that it is acting reasonably, has no or few other alternatives and is infringing the right to privacy as little as possible.”
In the CCLA’s view, full body screening has not been demonstrated to be significantly more effective than pat down searches. There are, for example, no guarantees that potential terrorists could not hide explosives in their body cavities without being detected, suggesting that the benefits of full body scanners may be somewhat illusory.
At a minimum, CCLA is insisting that the following safeguards be in place before the implementation of full body scanners is even considered:
- Full body scans should be optional, not mandatory, and only travellers selected for secondary screening should be given the option of submitting to full body scans as an alternative to other screening techniques, such as pat down searches;
- No travellers should be given the option of a full body scan until they have been fully informed of what the scan reveals and consented to its use;
- Minors should not be subject to full body screening without parental consent;
- Scanner images should be blurred so that subjects’ genitals are not revealed;
- Security officials viewing scanner images must be in a remote location, so as to never see the image and the subject at the same time;
- Scanner images must be destroyed immediately, and should not be retained for any purpose.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Nathalie Des Rosier, General Counsel, 416-363-0321, x. 227
Graeme Norton, Director, Public Safety Project, 416-363-0321, x. 223
