statism watch

So much for the privacy commissioner’s credibility. A compromise to your privacy is not ‘protection’ – all it takes is another staged event to galvanize public support around increased security, a bill quickly passed in the house, and you’re all walking through this thing. Some studies have reported significant damage to DNA exposed to Terahertz radiation. A Los Alamos team discovered that THz rays have the potential to ‘unzip’ DNA strands. Why in the hell has Helath Canada approved them? While the scientific consensus remains inconclusive on this matter, StatismWatch urges a mass boycott of these machines. Opt for the pat-down if the CBSA insists on treating you like a slave.

Flashback: Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
October 30, 2009

OTTAWA–Airport scanners that can see through your clothes have received the blessing of Canada’s privacy czar.

Chantal Bernier, the assistant federal privacy commissioner, said Friday that the national air security agency has successfully answered her office’s questions about the machines, which will be used only in limited circumstances.

The system, tested in British Columbia at the Kelowna airport, allows a screening officer to see whether someone is carrying plastic explosives or other dangerous items.

The proposal has stirred controversy because the scanner produces a three-dimensional outline of a person’s naked body.

“It is a very touchy issue, and we have addressed it with exactly that level of care,” Bernier told a gathering of security officials and academics. [Ed. Note: Clearly, she was at the same conference as CSIS and the RCMP.]

Under the plan approved by the privacy chief, the officer would view the image in a separate room and never see the actual traveller.

Only people singled out for extra screening would be scanned, and they would have the option of getting a physical pat-down instead.

Bernier said the holographic image generated by the scanner makes it difficult to identify the traveller’s face.

“You would not know who it is, even if you knew the person was in line,” she said at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies.

“We’ve actually tested it.”

In addition, the image would be deleted the moment the person leaves the screening portal.

“In our view, these privacy safeguards meet the test for the proper reconciliation of public safety and privacy,” Bernier said.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has done thorough threat assessments that reveal a need to search passengers for weapons that might elude a conventional metal detector, she said.

Giving a traveller who undergoes secondary screening the choice of either a full-body scan or a pat-down reduces the “sense of invasion” posed by the new tool, Bernier added.

In a preliminary assessment early last year, the air security authority said the scanner project amounted to a “low privacy risk” due to the built-in safeguards.

A letter sent to the agency Thursday from the privacy commissioner’s office recommends there be a public education campaign to explain the machines, and notes that minors would be scanned only with the consent of guardians accompanying them.

The scanners are already in use at airports in cities including Amsterdam, Moscow and Phoenix. They are also found in the high-security “green zone” of Baghdad and at some U.S. courthouses and prisons.

The air security authority says the low-level radio frequency wave emitted by the body scanner meets Canadian health-and-safety standards.

Data from the Kelowna pilot project will help the security authority determine which Canadian airports would most benefit from scanners.

Transport Canada would then decide whether to approve use of the devices across the country.

Mathieu Larocque, an air security authority spokesman, said work will now begin with Transport officials on drafting proposed regulations for the machines.

The authority hopes to buy seven of the devices, which cost about $200,000 apiece.

It is too soon to know which airports might get them, Larocque said.

Source | See Also under Travel: Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | Random breathalyzer tests considered for Canada | Laptops fair game for border searches | UK: Pilot project for DNA, isotope analysis of immigrants ‘deeply flawed’ | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Now you need a boat license | Border guards resorting to force more often | UK: Rothschild bank pitches motorway privatisation plan | CSIS role in Abdelrazik case to be probed | Abdelrazik accuses CSIS, MPs of harassment and interrogation | Vancouver kicks off quest for ways to fund transportation system | Border agents handcuff, interrogate Winnipeg couple | Abdelrazik vows to clear name from ‘unjust’ UN no-fly list | Mysterious people tailing recently repatriated no-fly-list refugee | Selective enforcement: Charkaoui barred from US airspace on flight from Fredericton to Montreal | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | UN rushes Abdelrazik terror allegations onto website in wake of exoneration | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | Ottawa will allow Abdelrazik to return to Canada | Ottawa defies court, refuses emergency travel documents to citizen trapped in Sudan | Court orders Ottawa to let Abdelrazik return to Canada | Jordanian woman alleges beating by interrogator at Toronto airport | Committee calls on Cannon to let Abdelrazik appear in Ottawa | Public may not hear fate of Greyhound bus killer | Canadians secretly interrogated Abdelrazik, papers show | Parade of excuses continues as Ottawa denies citizen’s repatriation | Province assumes control of transit board, pays Toronto $9 billion for projects | Big Brother is watching: surveillance box to track drivers is backed | Supporters defy law, buy plane ticket for Montrealer stuck in Sudan | US Terrorist watch list hits 1 million | Against protocol, bus decapitation accused released from Ontario institution in 2005 | ‘Say please’ at U. S. border nets pepper spray | Metrolinx’s draft report called for supporters to infiltrate public meetings | Woman swats children on plane, charged with Terrorism | UK-Irish travellers to face passport checks | U.S. visitors now required to register online with Department of Homeland Security | UK: ‘Spy-in-sky’ trials get the go-ahead despite Government promise to scrap road-pricing plan | Oregon Governor Wants GPS-Tracked Vehicle Mileage Tax | GTA Transit plan needs taxation, ‘governance’ powers | Calls for GPS-tracked ’speed-limiting’ cars in UK | GTA Transit plan needs taxation, ‘governance’ powers | Oregon Governor Wants GPS-Tracked Vehicle Mileage Tax | Is road-tolls fix running out of gas? | Supreme Court set to consider privacy rights | Drug-sniffing dog plan for BC SkyTrain unconstitutional: legal critics | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference | Retired B.C. woman surprised to find herself on international no-fly list | U.S. air-security rules cause Canadian turbulence | Road tolls called ‘inevitable’ | UK Pilots threaten strike over ID card plan | Federal government stages another retreat on road tolls | Federal Road Toll Meeting Sponsorship Kept Quiet Until After Election | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Metrolinx considering road tolls after all | Feds give customs agents free hand to seize travelers’ documents | GTA Transport Plan Defers Road Tolls, Focuses on Centralization, Intensification | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | Second Greyhound stabbing suspect also required ‘psychological help’, media clamour for airport-style security renewed | Police drop off and pick up new Greyhound knife assault suspect | Red light cameras not going up fast enough for Toronto budget | Ottawa balks at travel permit for man trapped in Sudan | Montreal man changing name to escape U.S. no-fly list | Federal road-toll study announced, immediately cancelled on eve of election call | Global ‘Intelligent Transport’ initiative comes to your cellphone: Location data used to track traffic flow | GPS Mapping Systems Enable Police Tracking | Cities Debate Giving Away Public Infrastructure to Bankers | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | NYC Residents Furious over Invasive Surveillance Grid | Security officials to scan D.C. area license plates | Beijing Taxis Are Bugged ‘For Driver Safety’ | ‘Please kill me,’ bus beheading suspect pleads as history of psychiatric treatment surfaces | Psych tests ordered for beheading suspect | Edmonton bus terminal ‘wide open’, security needed: ex-security guard | Bus beheading ‘a mystery’ | Bush Calls for New Highway Tolls, More Private Funding of Roads | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Regional transit requires ‘good governance’ | Get set – the future starts now | Air Canada objects to US plans to fingerprint exiting foreigners | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TTC officers won’t carry Tasers, guns | Today’s suburbs, tomorrow’s slums? | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | Ottawa Proposes Band-Aid ‘Bill of Rights’ for Airline Travellers | Road tolls, a bitter pill that works | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | Ontario Privacy Czar Worried about High-Tech Licences | Family of Canadian stranded by no-fly list to make public appeal | American Border Officers Want to Fingerprint Canadians at SPP Bridge | American Border Officers Want to Fingerprint Canadians at SPP Bridge | Pay-As-You-Drive Car Insurance | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’ | U.S. to collect DNA at border | Is it time for toll roads? | Metrolinx Proposes Satellite Vehicle Tracking for Road Tolls | Ontario privacy chief gives green light to TTC surveillance plans | Privacy International responds to Ontario Privacy Commissioner ruling on CCTV | Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues | T.T.C. Starts Camera Installation On Buses & Streetcars | Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’ | Privacy issues surround planned TTC cameras | Canada to launch no-fly list in June | Vancouver to import road tolls from UK | UK proposes national road tolls to cut congestion | Motorists to pay London toll

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 8:32 am and is filed under culture, surveillance. 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.