"Canadian airport security easily defeated"

Monday, September 11, 2006

Airport security easily defeated
A Sun Media reporter has no trouble getting right onto the tarmac of
Montreal's airport.
By FABRICE DE PIERREBOURG
CANADA - SUN MEDIA

  
MONTREAL -- Five years after 9/11, and despite hundreds of millions of
dollars spent by Ottawa to beef up security at Canada's major airports,
access to restricted areas is alarmingly easy, a Sun Media investigation
shows. 

Security is so lax at Montreal's international airport that a Sun Media
reporter was easily able to get into prohibited zones on seven separate
occasions. 

Twice, it was as easy as crawling under a fence on the outskirts of Pierre
Elliott Trudeau International Airport. The other times, the reporter used an
employee entrance. He had no uniform or security pass, but sailed through
checkpoints by appearing to belong there. 

The reporter was able to walk onto the tarmac used by international flights,
touch aircraft, visit hangars, get into a subcontractor's vehicle and even
play around with food carts being prepared for flights. 

The reporter wanted to find out whether passengers were really safe after
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and recent bans on liquids from hair gel to
toothpaste. 

Though passengers across Canada are being hit with increasingly severe
security restrictions, that's not the case for tens of thousands of airport
and airline workers in this country. 

"Why lock the front door when the side doors and those in the back are wide
open?" a Senate committee on national security concluded in 2003. 

The security breaches at Trudeau airport could have international
ramifications. After Toronto and Vancouver, it's Canada's third-busiest
airport with almost 11 million passengers a year flying to destinations
across Canada, Europe and the U.S. 

It may also give more ammunition to U.S. senators urging Washington to
tighten their northern border, citing weak Canadian security regulations. 

The examples of lax security discovered by Sun Media at Trudeau
International over the last month include: 

   - The reporter mixed in with workers coming on shift at Cara, the
contractor that prepares and delivers food to airplanes. He walked in
without identification, donned a white lab coat and toured the facility. He
spotted food carts for Air Canada, Royal Air Maroc, Cubana and other
airlines, and opened some. 

   - The reporter returned to Cara another day to see if his ease of entry
the first time was a fluke. He sailed through security again. 

   - Wearing jeans and a T-shirt and carrying a tape measure, the reporter
rang the bell at Handlex, a company that deals with baggage, on-board water
and aircraft cleaning. "Hello, I came to measure the wall because we are
redoing the bricks," he said. Let in and left alone, the reporter got behind
the wheel of a water-supply truck. 

   - The reporter walked through an open door into a deserted hangar at the
edge of Trudeau airport. The hangar is used by Hydro-Quebec, the province's
power utility, for its planes. Another open door at the other end of the
hangar led to the tarmac used by international flights. 

   - He also easily got access to the tarmac through an Air Inuit hangar
next door. 

   - The airport's perimeter fence offered a number of entry points. One
night, the reporter crawled under the fence and made it to the edge of a
main runway. He also touched numerous planes parked nearby. 

   - He returned to the same hole in the fence hours later and did it again.


Airport officials, unaware of Sun Media's discovery of numerous security
breaches, say security at Trudeau airport is adequate. 

"We have people who are responsible for the perimeter's security who are
always patrolling," said James Cherry, president of Aeroports de Montreal. 

"It is a real challenge, but we put in the effort to ensure it is secure." 

Cara officials refused to comment on the easy entry into its
food-preparation facilities, referring inquiries to airport officials.

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