CALGARY – Security staff at the Calgary International Airport are taking heated criticism this week for what’s being called their overzealous treatment of two travellers – an elderly breast-cancer survivor and a four-year-old girl.
On Friday, the federal agency in charge of airport security screening said it will apologize for hassling 82-year-old Elizabeth Strecker, who said she was mistreated while on her way home to Abbotsford, B.C., last week.
Meanwhile, another report emerged that a "terrified" four-year-old girl was subjected to a 20-minute security inspection at the same airport this week, including pat-downs, restraint and multiple scans of her doll.
For her part, Strecker was passing leaving from the Calgary airport on Jan. 4 after visiting relatives over the Christmas holidays when she ran into trouble.
Strecker said she initially said "no" when airport security screeners asked her a standard question about whether she was carrying any liquids or gels, which aviation regulations only allow in checked luggage.
Strecker, however, has a prosthetic breast, which is filled with a gel substance.
When the airport scanner detected her gel prosthesis, she was subjected to a pat-down during which she was touched everywhere, she said. Strecker said security then forced her to reveal the prosthesis before boarding a flight.
"She looked at me and said, ‘Just do it.’ So I pulled up this arm with my right hand and it hurt a lot and I started crying and she just looked at me, thinking why are you crying? Well, it hurt a lot," said Strecker.
She said the officers accused her of lying the first time she had been asked about gels.
Although Strecker has not filed a formal complaint, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority spokesman Mathieu Larocque said Friday the agency is investigating the episode and plans to apologize.
CATSA is still looking into details of the incident, said Larocque, adding employees are trained to handle all passengers with respect – and should always do so.
"We will be reaching out to the passenger to apologize," he said. "Obviously, this passenger did not have a pleasant screening experience."
Federal Transport Minister Chuck Strahl said airport security staff have a legal obligation to treat travellers with respect, and he recommended Strecker file a formal complaint.
"The story that we’re hearing is completely unacceptable," Strahl told reporters in Victoria.
Meanwhile, the parents of four-year-old Ella Wall are upset over the treatment their young daughter was given at the same airport.
Shannon and Scott Wall were returning from Mexico with Ella and her nine-year-old brother, Alex, on Thursday.
When an official demanded the girl’s doll go through the X-ray scanner, the tired child resisted. When she was separated from the doll and it was scanned, she began to cry loudly.
The family was told Ella needed to be patted down or put in the full body scanner. Her parents said Ella was too afraid to enter the scanner alone, and that they were not allowed to accompany her. An official approached to pat her down, and she flew into a tantrum.
The Walls were ordered to subject Ella to a pat-down, her parents said.
"I tried to tell them she was terrified. She was hysterical. It was a mess," the girl’s mother, Shannon, said Friday from their Saskatoon home.
"She’s four. A child should not be put through that."
Larocque said a four-year-old must pass through screening in the same manner as adults.
"Children have to go through the same process," he said. "We don’t make the rules – we enforce them."
Strahl said airport security is not usually a problem in Canada.
"It happens from time to time, though. There’s the human factor and sometimes you’ll get somebody, and I don’t know what it is – whether they’ve had a bad day or bad instruction, I’m not sure, but when they say something that’s completely out of line, especially when they start name-calling, that’s not acceptable and we’ve made it clear that people need to be treated with respect and dignity even though there’s a security job to do."
In its 2010 annual report, CATSA reported 1,520 complaints from passengers.
Though the report doesn’t specify the nature of the complaints, it notes there was a "surge" after authorities implemented emergency security measures in December 2009.
The added measures were in response to the so-called "Underwear Bomber" Umar Abdulmutallab, who was accused of trying to bring down a Detroit-bound Continental Airlines flight with an explosive sewn into his undergarments.
With files from Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Victoria Times Colonist, Global News
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