ANDREW ARDIZZI
NEWS REPORTER
Students should expect an increase in airport security during spring break.
“The security personnel are staffed according to peaks and valleys in traffic at different times of day, at different times of the year,” said Mathieu Larocque, spokesman for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA). “They’re always adjusting. This year will be no different.”
Scott Armstrong, spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, said there is usually a 15 to 20 per cent increase in traffic at airports at this time of year.
Recently CATSA invested in a controversial $11-million project that will install 44 body scanners in airports across Canada by this spring.
The scanners project a micro radio frequency onto the body, which re-creates a three-dimensional image. The image enables security to see concealed items under a person’s clothing, said Larocque.
Graeme Norton, director of Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s (CCLA) public safety project, rallied against the implementation of scanners based on privacy issues associated with the technology.
Norton advocated various safeguards including blurring of genitalia, destruction of images, and making body scans optional if physical body searches are preferred.
“The safeguards go a great way towards reducing the potential privacy invasions,” said Norton. “There’s need to monitor on an ongoing basis to ensure that the technology is not implemented in a way that would be insufficiently respectful of privacy.”
Norton said that CCLA has received phone calls from concerned travellers about the technology.
Some Humber students acknowledge the benefits of using full-body scans.
“I prefer the scans over a physical search because at least nobody touches you, and you don’t feel like you face any discrimination,” said Mohammad Yusuf, 23, a first-year wireless telecommunications student.
Yusuf said he plans to visit North Carolina during spring break.
“This is the first time I’m going to the U.S. and I believe they’ll be checking my finger prints to ensure I am who I say,” said Yusuf.
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