In fairness to labradorian, I can understand his (her?) security rant. Simply put, I think that we in Canada have endured a lot more airport security than most places I’ve been to, even before the events of September 11 (in spite of the information in Kamandi’s CBC news link).
I’m speaking from experience. I was both a Canadian Airlines Gold member as well as an Air Canada Elite member (each is the highest class of frequent flyer you can get), and I was in and out of airports in Canada, Europe, the US, and Australia. At times, it felt like I was living in airports and aircraft. And out of all of them, the only ones where I ever had to deal with overly officious security staff and procedures were Canadian airports.
My “home” airport, if you will, is Pearson in Toronto. At Pearson, as at all Canadian airports serving scheduled airlines, you cannot go to the gate unless you have a valid boarding pass. If you’re not going on a flight, you cannot accompany friends or family to their gate, you cannot go with your daughter and her new baby, you cannot help Granny in her wheelchair. (The airline will supply a staff member to help, however.) Unless you hold a valid boarding pass, you have never, in my memory, been allowed to the gate at a Canadian airport.
They will stop you for the smallest things at Canadian airport security checkpoints. I’ve been stopped more times than I can count for searches caused by metal objects I’ve either forgotten to put in the tray or that I don’t think of–usually things like candy (the foil on a roll of Life Savers), or my belt buckle (“Sir, would you remove your belt and walk through again please?”). Having to turn on your cellphone or laptop computer has become common in the last few years, and you’d better have an explanation for any unusual objects–I’ve seen flute cases opened and each part examined, and medical equipment questioned.
And yes, a few years ago, I saw them confiscate a box cutter from the man in front of me at the checkpoint.
Once inside the secure area, you cannot walk out again. Well, you can if you follow the signs to the baggage claim and exit that way, but there are no clearly marked exits from the gate area as there are in places like DFW and Chicago. At Pearson, even domestic baggage claim is a secure area, with doors and guards to make sure that people exit only; they do not enter. (In fairness though, the secure baggage area doesn’t exist in all Canadian airports.)
Under certain circumstances at Pearson airport, you cannot even go to areas of the concourse unless you hold a valid boarding pass for a flight leaving from that area. I was stopped once after clearing the security checkpoint and heading for the end of the concourse because my flight was not leaving from that end of the concourse. I said that I wanted to go to the newsstand down at that end to get a newspaper, and was only allowed to once I had pointed out that the newsstand at this end of the concourse was closed.
And all this was in place before September 11!
Contrast this with what I’ve experienced in the United States and domestic terminals in Australia. Anybody can go through the security checkpoints, ticketed passenger or not. They can move anywhere once past the security checkpoint. And they can leave the secure area at any time through clearly marked exits.
While I don’t necessarily agree with labradorian’s rant (as a very frequent flyer, I appreciated the ease with which I could move through non-Canadian airports), I can understand it and thought I should add some of my experiences with Canadian airport security. In Canada, even before September 11, flying was a test of patience and of remaining calm with security procedures; elsewhere it wasn’t nearly as strenuous. And I (and perhaps labradorian too) often wondered why.