Harper bill would give U.S. power to boot travellers going from Canada to Mexico?

[RedHot25]

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Har...893/story.html

The Harper government has quietly presented a bill in the House of Commons that would give U.S. officials final say over who may board aircraft in Canada if they are to fly over the U.S. en route to a third country.

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Bill C-42 amends Canada's Aeronautics Act to allow airlines to communicate passenger information to "a foreign state" for flights over that country without landing.

At present, airlines are only required to give passenger information to the U.S. government on flights landing in the United States.

Bill C-42 would comply with U.S. Homeland Security's Secure Flight program, which requires airlines to submit personal information about passengers 72 hours before a flight's departure.

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If Bill C-42 passes, then passengers leaving Canada on a flight to Cuba or France, for example, while flying over the U.S. would have their name, birthdate and gender subject to screening by U.S. Homeland Security, which involves running that information through various government databases to determine whether there is a terrorist threat.

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Currently, Canadian airlines check names against no-fly lists provided by the U.S. and Canadian governments. But the airlines decide who gets a boarding pass.

[corporatejay]

I really don't know if I have a problem with this. You are flying over their airspace, they have a right to know who's on those planes. Hijacking a plane from MTL or Toronto would cause just as much damage a plane from any american city.

The alternative is the US saying that those planes can't fly over US airspace, and that would cause a whole whack of other problems.

[Bobblehead]

The problem with that is it becomes a slippery slope. Do they notify Canada for almost every transatlantic flight since they all go through Canadian airspace? How about Iceland? When about flights over Europe, there are a boatload of countries to notify. It will just become a huge logistic boondoggle for questionable reward.