"Airport security failure rate 'embarrassing'"

Senator Colin Kenny says taxpayers are entitled to make their own judgments about what risks they want to assume.

Government security tests at airport checkpoints fail more than 10 per cent of the time, Senator Colin Kenny has revealed.

But Transport Canada refuses to make the results of its "intrusion tests" public because it would be embarrassing, Mr. Kenny told the Citizen's editorial board yesterday.

During the periodic tests, authorized Transport Canada officials attempt to smuggle guns, knives or explosives, usually in cases shielded by lead, past security checkpoints to test their effectiveness.

"The failure rate is double digit percentages," said Mr. Kenny, who chairs a Senate committee that released a report about weaknesses in airport security last month. "We heard from the highest sources that that's what it is."

The government used to make the results of intrusion tests public, but stopped after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That should change, said Mr. Kenny.

"The results should come out like clockwork. Taxpayers are entitled to make their own judgments about what risks they want to assume."

Transport Canada officials have told the Senate's national security committee that releasing the results would alert terrorists to airport security gaps.

But Mr. Kenny said Transport Canada could avoid that by releasing test results six months later, after problems have been addressed. The real reason for withholding the results, he suggested, is that "they'd be embarrassed if people knew how often the system failed."

The department's unwillingness to come clean on the high failure rate is consistent with its refusal to acknowledge that there are serious weaknesses in airport security, Mr. Kenny said.

Last month's Senate report said airport security is an illusion, in part because only about two per cent of airport employees are screened daily for dangerous goods.

After ignoring an offer from Mr. Kenny for an advance briefing on the report's contents, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon accused the committee of twisting reality and insisted that airports are safe.

While Mr. Cannon has promised to review the report's recommendations, Mr. Kenny said that's a tactic governments routinely employ to avoid action. "That's the most effective way they have to hope the news cycle has moved on and they don't really have to address the issue."

Governments get away with this, Mr. Kenny said, because the searches to which travellers are subject in airports have created the impression that security is stringent.

But few realize that baggage handlers, caterers, refuellers and other airport workers can move about largely free of security scrutiny, he said. "The incredible openness of the back door would shock most Canadians, given what they have to go through at the front door."

Moreover, Mr. Kenny said, the RCMP has strong evidence that organized criminal gangs have infiltrated Canadian airports

"If the cops are saying this, why doesn't Transport Canada want to deal with this?" he asked. "If organized criminals can come in and do this, terrorists can, too."

Like their Liberal predecessors, Mr. Cannon and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day initially seemed open to the Senate committee's concerns about security at airports, ports and borders, Mr. Kenny said. "When I meet them face to face, they're very agreeable."

Mr. Day even came to Mr. Kenny's office for a briefing, taking copious notes. "I thought, boy, I've got a guy who's paying attention," he said. "Then when the time comes, it doesn't seem to make the priority list."

Mr. Kenny puts much of the blame on Transport Canada bureaucrats. "I've come to the conclusion that the bureaucrats run the department," he said.

Mr. Kenny said the Senate committee's security concerns get a better response from the government when journalists give the issue prominent coverage.

"That's far more likely to cause action than me sitting down and logically working my way through. We're convinced that without a minimum critical mass of media coverage, nobody pays any attention to our stuff."

The government's reluctance to plug security holes is baffling, given the ongoing threat to Canada from terrorism, Mr. Kenny said.

In preparing the latest Senate report, Mr. Kenny met with security officials in Canada, Britain, Australia and the United States. "Every one of them said Canada's a target. Every one of them said it's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

And CSIS regularly monitors the activities of between 40 and 60 Canadian groups that are "troublesome" and could evolve into security threats, he said.

For video and audio of Senator Kenny's discussion with the Citizen editorial board, go to ottawacitizen.com, under Editorial Board Discussions.