In one sense, ‘National Opt-Out Day’ – where Americans were urged to say no to body-revealing X-ray scans on one of the busiest travel days of the year -- was a flop. But in terms of media coverage and getting the attention of politicians and air security honchos it was a huge success.
The furor had an impact here in Canada too, as Transport Minister Chuck Strahl used the occasion to promise that the intrusive public pat-downs U.S. airports are offering as an alternative to body scans will not happen here.
As CBC News reported, Canadian airports are installing privacy screens and booths which will give people the option of being screened in private. "It's a completely separate system and what you are seeing on YouTube are American examples of pretty provocative pat-downs that [don't] exist in Canada," Strahl told reporters.
Meanwhile, south of the border, security lines moved smoothly as hundreds of thousands of air travellers set off on Thanksgiving travels. The uneventful day came despite a massively publicized protest conceived earlier this month by Virginia health-care worker Brian Sodergren, who built a simple website urging people to opt-out of controversial body scans. One potential reason why few people took up the opt-out challenge is that the alternative is what the U.S. Transportation Security Administration is calling ‘enhanced’ pat-downs, which many recipients claim includes touching of private parts.
The passenger revolt went viral last week, largely thanks to a Californian who recorded his encounter with airport security officials that included the now famous utterance: "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested." John Tyner’s colourful phrasing inspired a rap tune and became a focal point for American angst over increasingly intrusive security screening.
Passengers aren’t the only ones suffering under the tighter regulations. U.S. airport screeners report being head-butted, punched, kicked and shoved during pat-downs, as well as enduring verbal abuse. “We just want the public to understand that we're not perverts," said screener Ricky D. McCoy.
Would Canadians reactions be any different if the same approach was taken here? Not according to one reader comment to a CBC.ca story on the issue: “If somebody touches any private body part, they will get a knee to their head. I am not advocating assault, but every day we live, our rights are being slowly taken away.” The comment had received 173 “thumbs up” indicating agreement from other readers, versus just 44 ‘thumbs down.’
Security officials now find themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place. They will no doubt be heaped with blame if a passenger successfully brings an explosive device or weapon onto a plane, but they face unrelenting criticism for their efforts to prevent that terrible scenario. It’s almost impossible to believe, as Bob Greene points out in a CNN op-ed piece, that prior to the 1970s there was no such thing as a security checkpoint in a U.S. airport.
