The Globe and Mail – September 17, 2010
The Canadian Harper government has quietly tightened air security rules to make it absolutely clear that airlines must check a passenger’s “entire face” before they board a plane. The measure stems from an early August 2010 controversy in which a video released on YouTube showed two Muslim women, their faces covered, boarding an Air Canada flight out of Montreal.
At the time, then-Transport Minister John Baird insisted that airlines were already obligated under “identity screening regulations” to verify the identity of all passengers before they are allowed to board. The new measure, enacted by recently appointed Transport Minister Chuck Strahl, has been issued because Ottawa discovered the existing rules were not detailed enough.
