OTTAWA - Canada's no-fly list did not ground a single passenger in the six-month period following its debut at airports across the country, according to new figures.
The federal Transport Department says no one was barred from boarding an aircraft due to inclusion on the roster from June to November. Department officials received about 50 calls from airlines concerning passengers whose names turned up on the list, but all were false matches, said Patrick Charette, a Transport Canada spokesman.
"You want to minimize the disruption to passengers. So you want to make sure that you can deal with those potential matches pretty quickly."
Under the program in place since mid-June, airlines use a list of individuals considered "an immediate threat to civil aviation" should they board an aircraft.
When the airline zeroes in on someone as a possible match with an entry on the list, the carrier contacts Transport Canada for confirmation of identity and a decision about boarding.
Charette said the absence of actual matches is a reflection of how carefully security officials were in compiling the names.
"This list is very focused and narrow in scope," he said. "It's working as we expected that it should work."
Though officials will not comment on the size of the Canadian roster, it is believed to number in the low thousands.
The U.S. no-fly list has been widely criticized as a sprawling and inaccurate tool for ensuring aviation security.
Candidates for the Canadian no-fly list are put forward primarily by the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Members of these agencies, along with representatives of Transport and the Justice Department, sit on an advisory panel that formally recommends names for inclusion.
People are not notified in advance they are on the list.
Someone on the roster, or whose name mistakenly matches one on the list, would be automatically prevented from printing a boarding pass through an Internet vendor or at an airport kiosk.
Ottawa insisted a Canadian no-fly list was necessary to guard against terrorists and others out to cause havoc in the skies. Civil libertarians labelled it an assault on human rights with no guarantee of increased safety.
The fact no one has been prevented from flying "lends considerable support" to critics who claim the list was a solution in search of a problem, said Prof. Wade Deisman, criminologist and director of the University of Ottawa's national security project.
"Because nobody's tried to fly who's on this list, it raises the question of whether it is a phantom menace," Deisman said.
"The right to know what information the government is collecting on you and how they're using that information has been encroached upon here."
It's not surprising no one has been snagged by the no-fly list, said Fred Gaspar, vice-president of policy and strategic planning with the Air Transport Association of Canada.
"I think the government by and large got it right with the development of this list," said Gaspar, whose group represents Canadian airlines.
"By narrowly defining it, they've ensured that they're not casting a wide net."
Deisman said it is "very distressing" that Canadian airlines likely still use the U.S. no-fly list to complement the one drafted by Ottawa.
Gaspar refused to discuss specific security tools the airlines use.
But it is known that air carriers have long checked names against the U.S. no-fly list even for flights between Canadian cities.
Dozens of Canadians have formally complained about being delayed at airports because their name - or at least one that matches theirs - turned up on the U.S. list, or possibly another list that singles passengers out for secondary screening.
Many have turned to Washington to clear up the confusion so they can continue to fly.
A person denied boarding as part of the Canadian no-fly program can appeal to Transport Canada's Office of Reconsideration.
However, given the absence of actual matches, no one has appealed, Charette said.
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