Canadian Airport Security in North a Concern: Expert

Airport security may be tightening up across Canada, but people flying within the northern territories do not face any screening, worrying a security expert who warns terrorists could use the North as an entry point.

Currently, airline passengers flying from Iqaluit, Yellowknife and Whitehorse to cities in southern Canada must go through full security screening, including metal detectors and carry-on luggage scans.

But passengers travelling within northern communities — for example, between Iqaluit and Yellowknife — walk directly to their departure gates without undergoing any security screening.

Terrorists could take advantage of those lax security measures to get into North America, said Robert Huebert, a political science professor at the University of Calgary who specializes in Arctic studies.

“If you can get to the [Arctic] shore by some form of maritime transport, then you can get onto one of these aircrafts without being checked,” Huebert told CBC News.

“Then you can get yourself to Yellowknife or to Whitehorse, and then basically have someone meeting you and then get onto the highway system.”

Terror threat identified

Canadian security agencies have been talking about the North’s potential as a gateway for terrorists or other extremists to enter the country, according to a recently declassified intelligence report obtained by The Canadian Press earlier this month.

Huebert said while the possibility of a terrorist attack in the North is not very likely, he said foreign extremists could take advantage of spotty surveillance in the region to enter Canada and the U.S.

Transport Canada, which is responsible for the screening of airline passengers, would not comment specifically about screening at northern airports.

“Transport Canada carefully assesses the risks and consults with security partners, other levels of government, and the aviation industry in order to take appropriate measures which minimize, to the extent possible, the impact on the travelling public,” the federal department said in a statement to CBC News.

“For security reasons, Transport Canada does not comment on such assessments,” the department added.

Travellers resist hassles

Some northern travellers say introducing security measures in northern airports would create new hassles, especially for those from smaller communities who fly to the capital cities to stock up on supplies.

“Hunters that come in … from the smaller communities to Yellowknife, a lot of them supply up with hunting gear,” Chief Jim Antoine of the Liidli Kue First Nation in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., said at the Yellowknife airport.

“To go through security with their hunting supplies would be a real hassle.”

But Huebert said passengers on all flights should undergo security screening, including those in Canada’s North.

“It’s often been argued that it’s simply a matter of being too expensive and the threat too unlikely,” he said.

“But you have to ask the question: Do you know for certain? And is the security of northerners any less than what those in southern Canada get?”