By Spencer Sterritt

Nanaimo woman petitions Canadian gov’t to amend no-fly list for her 4-year-old daughter

Nov 7, 2017 | 3:47 PM

NANAIMO — Flying can already be a hassle, made even more chaotic when a young child is detained for extra screening because their name is similar to someone on the no-fly list.

Amber Cammish and her family visited Parliament on Monday, Nov. 6 to meet with MP’s about the situation, since her four-year-old daughter Alia Mohamed shares a name with someone on the list. After years of not being able to check-in for flights online, an Air Canada employee informed them of the complication when they were checking in earlier this year.

“There are children who are eight, 12, 15, 20-years-old now who’ve dealt with this stigma for most of their lives,” she told NanaimoNewsNOW.

She and other affected families are calling for a redress system in Canada, which would clear falsely-identified individuals from the international no-fly list. They’re part of the No Fly List Kids group, which has roughly 130 affected families.

Relating stories of others from the group, she said people with common names such as David Matthews have been flagged. The husband of a colleague of Cammish’s is named Richard Reid, which is also the name of the “Shoe Bomber,” a British man who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up an American flight in 2001 and who’s name is on the no-fly list.

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“He’s looking forward to his retirement, yet is fearful of travelling anymore because of the scrutiny,” Cammish said. “Why is anyone named Richard Reid still being subjected to ongoing security when this person is already incarcerated?”

Looking to the future, Cammish said concerns about delays at an airport pale in comparison to larger ramifications.

“What I’m worried about is my daughters information being shared worldwide by domestic airlines to their partners internationally. As we move forward with more stringent security measures, is this information being passed through?”

Unfortunately, getting the name of her daughter and others removed from the no-fly list isn’t as easy as deleting a name.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said resolving the ongoing airport hassles would require a brand new computer system to create unique redress numbers for everyone coming into conflicts with the no-fly list, numbers which would be printed on tickets and other pre-flight information.

“It’s a complicated process, sadly,” Goodale said on Monday before the daily question period. “The mistake was made several years ago when this thing was set up in a backawards fashion. We’ve got to change the system and that’s what we’re working on.”

Bill C-59, brought forward by the Liberals in the spring, would allow the federal government to tell parents if their child is on the no-fly list or not.

Cammish said the bill doesn’t address the real problem and doesn’t introduce funding for the redress system to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.

“We want it as an independent bill that’s not going to be tied up in any sort of discussion for years to come. We want it done and we want it funded for this upcoming budget in March 2018 to start the process, not for it to sit for years in the House of Commons being debated.”

Despite the numerous political challenges in creating a redress system, Cammish said she and others are hopeful the situation will be fixed since she said they garnered support from all federal political parties.

“We have the majority of the support of the House of Commons and we think that should be enough for them to make this a single item and push it through for the next budget.”

— with files from the Canadian Press

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit