That didn't take long
Less than two weeks old, and already the "false positive" problem rears its head.
Two boys named Alistair Butt, one from Saskatchewan and one from Ontario, were stopped while trying to board flights last week because their name matches a name that appears on a no-fly list.
The Ontario boy, a 15-year-old from the Ottawa-area town of Orléans, was trying to check in to an Air Canada flight from Montreal to St. John's when he was told he couldn't board.
The Saskatoon boy, who's 10, was also told he couldn't get on an Air Canada flight, although it is not clear what airport he was stopped at.
. . .
Transport Canada won't confirm if the boys are on a United States no-fly list, an airline no-fly list or Canada's new no-fly list, which went into effect on June 18.
Bad enough, I suppose, that you can get banned from flying if your name happens to appear on one of apparently several lists the airlines are checking, (and I've already posted about how much sense that idea makes), which also means that to get your name off the list(s), you have to appeal to multiple players and hope for the best, but check out the advice the airline gave one of kids' mothers:
"We said, 'What do we do?' and then, much to our amazement, she said we could possibly change our child's name," Heather said.
Can you imagine! If the airlines keep giving out this advice, the TERRORISTS are going to figure out that they can beat the list by NOT CHECKING IN UNDER THEIR OWN NAMES!
Oh wait. That's so blindingly obvious that the 10-year old Alistair could have figured it out, were he actually a nefarious character, and not just some poor kid who happens to share a name with some unknown individual, who was put on some unknown list, for some unknown reason.
Basically, this is just a fool's game so that the government looks like it's doing something to protect our security, when in actual fact they haven't made us in the least bit safer. Oh, and as an added bonus, since there is no oversight or known criteria for getting put on the list, they can also use it to harass and intimidate people they don't like.
I never realized it before, but it turns out the Conservatives really are the inheritors of guys like Benjamin Franklin. Think about it; Franklin said that those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither. Our government is working on taking away our liberties and in return, giving us exactly the amount of security old Ben thought we deserved. All zero of it.
