Sunday, August 1, 2010

Ban the burqa? Not on Air Canada

Canadian Transport Minister John Baird -- "Call me Steve" Harper's attack poodle -- said in a statement issued today that his department has procedures in place to verify the identity of anyone who has their face covered. He said this approach is "consistent with international standards, regardless of culture or religion".

Well, who am I to call John Baird a liar? A big girl's blouse disguising himself as the schoolyard bully, maybe, but not a liar.

On the other hand, there's this video which appeared recently on YouTube. Posted by a British man, the clip shows two women boarding an Air Canada flight in Montréal recently, without being asked to remove their burqas so their faces could be checked against their passports. The man seen in the video hands over passports for the group, and the women go through without showing their faces.

According to Canadian Press, Baird "called the situation 'deeply disturbing' and said such actions pose 'a serious threat to the security of the air travelling public.'"

So what is Joan doing about it? Errrr... looking into it, don'tcha know. So that's all right then.

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