Halifax man ‘humiliated’ by Air Canada agents

Halifax man says he felt ‘humiliated’ by extra questioning by Air Canada agents By: Jacques Gallant Staff Reporter, Published on Wed Aug 20 2014

Mohamed Yaffa said he found it annoying when he was asked to show more ID and go through extra questioning in March 2010 at an Air Canada counter because of his name.

By June of that year, when he said he was facing the process for the sixth time, he found it not just annoying, but incredibly humiliating.

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“They said it’s about my name, but I don’t know what is wrong with my name. They haven’t told me that,” said Yaffa, a diversity and inclusion co-ordinator at Capital Health, which provides health services in the Halifax region. “I thought you should be treated based on your actions, but not based on your name.”

Yaffa, who describes himself as a “Muslim Canadian of African descent,” has brought Air Canada before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, alleging that he faced “enhanced security screening” because of his race, national or ethnic origin, colour and religion.

Air Canada told the tribunal that it did not discriminate against Yaffa, but was simply following American and Canadian requirements with regards to each country’s no-fly list. The airline declined to comment further as the matter is still before the tribunal.

In an interview Wednesday, Yaffa told the Star that Air Canada agents have never told him if his name is actually on a no-fly list. Public Safety Canada said it does not publicly release names on the list due to security concerns. He said the extra questioning and security screenings have usually led him to be the last passenger to board the plane.

“And then everybody on the plane is looking at you, knowing you were there standing at the counter while the agent was on the phone. It’s very distressful,” he said. “But it also makes you apprehensive for the next time. Will you face delays again? Are you going to be prohibited from flying at all? Because nobody is telling you exactly what your issue is.”

Having worked in the field of diversity and inclusion training for the last 14 years, Yaffa said he knows what a “culturally sensitive” staff looks like, and wants to see proof that Air Canada is properly training its agents.

Tribunal member David Thomas ordered Air Canada on Aug. 8 to confirm whether it trains its front-line employees on human rights and cultural sensitivity. He also ordered that it turn over complaints dating back to 2007 related to alleged discrimination having to do with the airline’s application of the no-fly list.

Officially known as the Passenger Protect Program, the no-fly list was instituted in 2007 as part of a bilateral treaty with the United States. Since then, it has been criticized for making travel difficult for passengers with names similar to those people on the list

Thomas ordered Yaffa, who alleges the Air Canada incidents caused him anxiety and depression, to submit medical records and his human resources file. Yaffa alleges he has been met with hostility and racist remarks when Air Canada agents have stopped him due to his name. One agent at the Ottawa airport, he alleges, told him that if he did not like the way he was being treated, he could “go back home.”

Yaffa said the incidents at the Air Canada counter have led him to have some important discussions with his children about diversity and human rights.

“I just tell them that (Air Canada) is making some mistakes, but they are aware that something is not very right,” he said. “I don’t want my children to be alarmed by it. They are Canadians, they were born here. They have to love their society and their country, but they also have to feel loved by their country.”

 

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That's very odd; in three decades of flying with them, I've never known Air Canada to operate like an arrogant, mismanaged, government-sheltered national monopoly...

[video=youtube;PgDizh4DMno]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgDizh4DMno[/video]​

 

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You are a scream. Best all-around vibe for the whole site in a long long time. It blows my mind that you found that to use here. Kind of upsets the balance of indignity that Stranger opened with. I mean, this guy with the Muslim name had to supply two forms of ID while the other passengers, no matter who they were, just had their bags violated.

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Never heard that put that way yet it seems appropriate.


I wrote that before watching the video. I thought by violated you were referring to them being opened & searched.

 

Damn! That is terrible. Now I see why my luggage doesn't last long.

 

Canadians are so elitist about themselves and as they say "retain the right to refuse anyone their rights". Poor man, but he picked that country and now he has to suffer in their tax hell zone.

 

I'd rather give up my time to be searched or asked for more ID if I knew it just might catch a suspected terrorist before they got onto my flight. There's things we have to contend with living in a terrorist world today.

 

If we live in fear of terrorists - then they win.

 

Then evidently, they won.

 

My sentiments are that prevention is better than no prevention at airports so whatever needs to be done to insure that those flying are safe then so goes life.

 

Nothing will make flying 100% safe - and nothing we have done since 9/11 in our airports has stopped a terrorist, either. It is a huge expense (both in time and money) that pays no rewards.

However, it makes some people less afraid, and thus is kept.

 

Just change your name to Yaffa.
Wish granted.

 

Does the flight list check consist of looking for funny foreign names?

 

Usually when people say things like that they really mean "I want other people - you know, _them_ - to be hassled. I'm obviously not a threat, so no reason to delay me."

 

I wonder do they realise that they have questioned him before,
or are they trapped in some Groundhog Day scenario?

 

1,813 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country, averaging nearly fivefirearms per day. Of those, 1,477 (81%) were loaded. Firearms were intercepted at a total of 205 airports with Atlanta (ATL) on top of the list for the most firearms intercepted (111) in 2013.


Just wondering if those firearms were to have made it inboard an aircraft just how many planes might have been hijacked?

 

1,813 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country, averaging nearly fivefirearms per day. Of those, 1,477 (81%) were loaded. Firearms were intercepted at a total of 205 airports with Atlanta (ATL) on top of the list for the most firearms intercepted (111) in 2013.


So that might have prevented a few terrorist attacks.

 

That is probably people who want to have a gun to protect themselves
because they know someone called Yassa is on board.

 

Customs Officer: This gun is prohibited.
Passenger: Wor in the Meercan constitution does it say a man caynt carry his faararm 'board an airplane?

 

The last time I flew, I was taken aside and had my hands swabbed looking for explosives residue.
Long hair and a full beard, and I think of the tsa as a terrorist organization, so maybe unsmiling and a tad gruff also.
I fantasize having a floor length hooded robe made up with metallic threads woven into it, and then, wearing only that, go through their damned search lines---------just for fun.
Maybe a tad like poking a tiger with a stick?

The TSA is a terrorist organization born of terrorism, and thriving on fears of terrorism.