Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Full-body scanner now at Winnipeg airport
WINNIPEG — Some travellers flying to the United States from Winnipeg will now be getting up close and personal with airport security officers.
Real personal. And they won’t even have to stand in the same room.
On Saturday, a new full-body scanner was installed at Richardson International Airport. The machine produces a full-body image, viewed by a security officer in a separate room from the passenger.
The image can detect objects such as weapons or explosives. But many are concerned that’s not all the devices find. Papers from the Wall Street Journal to the Windsor Star called the machine a "virtual strip search." Once, the technology was kept out of airports because it produced explicit images.
That’s been adapted over time — the current model produces a stylized, non-identifying image of the body — and Canada’s privacy commissioner has given the scanners a green light.
But some fears still remain. The scanners made headlines in early January, when federal Transport Minister John Baird announced the machines would be landing in Canadian airports, after a trial run in Kelowna, B.C., in 2008.
The announcement followed the Dec. 25 attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound Northwest Airlines flight. The first permanent scanner in Canada went live at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport in January.
Most passengers, however, won’t find their love handles in the security limelight. Only travellers headed to the U.S. and selected for a random second screening will be given the option of stepping into the scanner. The other option is a traditional physical pat-down by a security officer.
"Our goal is always to improve security and customer satisfaction," said Ottawa-based Canadian Air Transport Security Authority spokesman Mathieu Larocque. "This machine provides us improvement on both fronts. Some customers do not like physical searches."
The new scanner is one of 12 now in place at airports across Canada. CATSA aims to have the rest of the 44 units from manufacturer L3 Communications in place at heavy-traffic airports by the end of 2010.
Security officers at the airport are certified to use the scanner via a week-long course. Currently, the Winnipeg airport has enough certified staff to use the machine at any time, Larocque said, and CATSA aims to have all officers trained as part of an "ongoing process."
melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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