Article content

All 193,000 workers with access to restricted areas at Canada’s sensitive airports and seaports are being quietly run through a police database each and every day — a new system called “perpetual vetting” — in a push to extinguish “the inside threat” of criminal infiltration.

The constant police checks, alongside national security searches by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), background reports from the RCMP and foreign history verification by Immigration Canada has pushed the number of employees stripped of their security clearance by Transport Canada over links to the Mafia, Hells Angels, drug traffickers and other “adverse” people or activities to record-high levels, the National Post has learned.

“It is virtually real-time,” said Guy Morgan, director of the Security Screening Program with Transport Canada, proud of the suite of security checks now at his disposal.

Article content

“When I come in Monday morning, I know who’s been charged over the weekend. This allows us to then pull those files and re-take a look at the security profiles to determine if anything has changed.

“We’re trying to protect the transportation infrastructure, the employees that work here, the users and the surrounding communities against the inside threat,” he said.

The increasing breadth and depth of security screening, however, also brings accusations of unfair over-reach, with a wide definition of what is a threat and narrow tolerance for someone explaining it away.

In this dispute the stakes are high: the vulnerability of our sensitive air and sea ports on one hand and the livelihood and privacy of the workers. 

Article content

Terrorism and organized crime are the program’s priority targets, but a wide range of activities raise red flags, even shaking hands with a member of the Hells Angels in a bar.

Transport Canada’s Security Screening Program started in 1986 in response to the Air India bombing. In 1985, a bomb concealed in luggage on a flight from Montreal destroyed a jetliner over the Atlantic, killing all 329 people aboard.

The program has evolved substantially since.

“The purpose of the program is to try to prevent unlawful acts of interference with aviation. And there is also a marine clearance program,” said Morgan.

Air and seaports have long been key transit points for smuggling and sensitive targets for international terrorists. Access by employees have been exploited to further criminal aims. It’s what Moran calls the “inside threat.”

Article content

Employees who need access to restricted areas in an airport — everyone working beyond the security gates for passengers, including baggage handlers, aircraft mechanics, airline employees, cleaning staff, store clerks and food vendors — requires a restricted area identity card (RAIC). To get a RAIC, they must have security clearance from Transport Canada. There is a similar system for marine port workers, although the restricted areas at seaports are a significantly smaller portion of the port, which leads to its own problems.

The RCMP started sharing criminal intelligence for background checks with Transport Canada in 2009. That year, 16 airport workers lost their security clearance, double the number from the year before. The tally has climbed almost every year since, reaching 110 in 2015 — a record figure over 10 years of data provided to the National Post by Transport Canada.

Article content

Perpetual vetting is the latest tool.

Transport Canada was granted access to computer terminals of the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), the national law enforcement database. CPIC is a massive, constantly updating omnibus database of police information from police forces across Canada, including criminal convictions, charges,  intelligence and surveillance information and much more.

When I come in Monday morning, I know who’s been charged over the weekend

An automated system of checking every employee who has security clearance each day began on Nov. 26, 2014, Morgan said.

The number of applicants refused clearance at airports jumped significantly the next year, from 70 to 110. In just the first half of 2016, the number almost equaled that: 98. Cancellations of clearance for current airport employees almost doubled, from 24 to 42.

Article content

At marine ports, clearance refusals jumped from 26 to 45 the year after perpetual vetting’s launch; cancellations climbed from 16 to 20.

“We review everything — if there’s a hit, we review it and make an assessment,” said Morgan.

The push, however, also is bringing a flurry of challenges from those banished.

Many workers who lose their clearance leave quietly. Morgan said the longest criminal record of an applicant for a security clearance was 78 criminal convictions. (He was denied.)

The only recourse for airport workers objecting to a security revocation is a legal challenge in the Federal Court. The increase in revocations brings increased court battles.

At least a dozen security revocation appeals have been decided recently by the Federal Court involving former workers at Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal airports. At least 32 others are before the court.

Article content

For example:

• Joseph Rossi was a manager of an airline food service company at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. His first security clearance was issued in 1998 and renewed every five years.

An RCMP report on Rossi said he had ties to two co-workers involved in importing drugs through the airport and a “suspected” association to Giuseppe Torre’s group, which brought in large quantities of drugs through the airport with the Rizzuto Mafia family.

An investigation led to the seizure of 11 kilograms of cocaine and the arrest of co-workers and others, part of the massive Project Colisée that hit the Montreal Mafia.

Rossi complained, saying he had no convictions, had only innocent contact with his dirty co-workers and was unaware of drug smuggling at the airport. His appeal was rejected.

Article content

“A security clearance is not a right, but a privilege. It is reasonable for an individual to expect that his personal associations would be relevant to the granting or maintenance of a security clearance,” ruled Justice Richard Bell.

• Zahid Sattar had been employed by Securiguard Services at Vancouver airport since 1999, with access to restricted areas since 2004. His clearance was cancelled in 2015.

Sattar’s background check noted 10 people he associated with had ties to criminal organizations and had committed crimes, including drug trafficking, homicide, assault and possession of a prohibited weapon.

In 2005, he was named as the new owner of a bar in Surrey, B.C., “known to be frequented by Hells Angels’ members” and was seen at a Hells Angels event at the bar, Transport Canada was told. In 2010, RCMP officers caught him and a man linked to an Indo-Canadian gang trying to evade police; and in 2011, he attended the stag for a UN Gang member.

Article content

Sattar said he was not involved with any criminal activity. He said he paid a deposit with the intent of buying the bar, but did not complete the sale.

His appeal to the Federal Court was denied.

• Robinder Singh Sidhu was employed as a station attendant dealing with cargo at Vancouver airport, where he began work in 1989, first with Canadian Airlines then Air Canada.

He was arrested by the RCMP in 2014 as part of a heroin smuggling probe and accused of using his access to move boxes in a secure area. Police said he admitted to moving goods, but said he thought they only contained steroids. He was not charged.

Article content

Police seized 37 kilos of heroin. At least one of those charged, another Air Canada employee, was an associate of Sidhu, police said. Sidhu denied knowingly aiding a heroin ring.

His court appeal was denied.

• Rajkamal Singh Mangat, 39, had worked full-time for Air Canada since 1997 as an aircraft maintenance engineer, including working on the prime minister’s jet.

In 2003, Mangat was charged with assault and mischief after causing a disturbance at a fast food restaurant, although both charges were stayed; in 2008, he was charged with theft under $5,000 after a shoplifting incident, but the charge was withdrawn; that same year, he was charged with threatening to slit the throats of two co-workers but the charges were withdrawn when he agreed to a peace bond; in 2012, he was charged with threatening tenants of a residence, but the charges were also stayed.

Article content

In his defence, Mangat said none of the incidents were as bad as they looked: the shoplifter was a former wife, his brother made the threats in the first incident and he lied to court to protect him, and the second set of threats involved him yelling at squatters.

His security clearance was denied and his appeal to the court unsuccessful.

The minister is entitled to err on the side of public safety

• Li Gu Li, who worked as a groomer with Sunwest at Calgary International Airport, was first granted security clearance in 2007. She was fired in 2015 when her security access was revoked.

Her RCMP report said she was “very close” to someone associated with a Vietnamese organized crime gang who was “known to police for trafficking drugs,” although two sets of drug charges against this person were stayed. She was also said to be associating with a second person police linked to drug production and police saw her car parked at a house in Abbotsford, B.C., where a marijuana grow op was found.

Article content

Li said she did not know there was a grow op in the basement of a house where she rented a room.

A judge dismissed her appeal.

Some links to crime are more tenuous than others. The Post previously reported on a worker whose clearance was cancelled because her former husband later joined the Hells Angels and on another worker who was found by U.S. police near the border with 12 kilos of marijuana and $353,430 in U.S. currency.

Most of those seeking the court’s redress have failed.

Transport Canada has wide discretion and doesn’t need criminal convictions or corroborating evidence.

“The minister is entitled to err on the side of public safety,” Justice James Russell wrote in deciding Mangat’s case.

There have been a few notable loses.

Article content

Juliet Meyler won her appeal last year after her security clearance was yanked, costing her two ground-handling jobs at Toronto’s Pearson airport.

The allegations were potentially serious: police alleged an association with the “group leader of a drug importation ring” at the airport and she was a suspect in a drug importation probe in 2007 -09.

Meyler was never told who the “group leader” was. She said she had no involvement in drug smuggling and had no idea who the leader might be. Authorities could not disclose specifics to protect an informant and because the investigation was continuing.

That secrecy helped to save her. Noting such cases were rare, Justice Donald Rennie ruled Meyler “was unable to respond to the case against her” and her revocation was ordered to be reconsidered.

Article content

Last month, Ayaan Farah won a similar case.

Her security clearance to work at Toronto airport as a customer service agent with U.S. Airways was cancelled after an RCMP report said her car was seen leaving the cemetery during a gang member’s funeral in 2012; she was not in the vehicle.

She was also seen in 2011 with a long-standing member of the Dixon Crew, a street gang based in Toronto’s west end. The man has convictions for 11 serious offences, including drug trafficking, home invasions and counterfeit money and involved in gun trafficking, the report said.

Farah objected.

“Toronto police is falsely accusing me of having ties to gangsters. I am a law-abiding citizen with no criminal convictions,” she complained.

Article content

She asked for details on who the gang member is so she could defend herself but was not told.

“I ask that the police clear my name,” she told Transport Canada. Instead, her security clearance was cancelled.

Justice Susan Elliott ruled, “Farah was simply not provided with enough information to allow her to make any kind of meaningful response,” and ordered a reconsideration.

Farah’s lawyer, Mitchell Worsoff, said his client’s case highlights  problems in Transport Canada’s aggressive approach.

“Some people deserve to lose their clearance, and that’s fair, because travelling must be safe and some people are doing things they shouldn’t be doing,” he said. “But some people are being swept up by this vast net that is cast, all because they know somebody with a criminal record or are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Article content

“Innocent people get caught up in it.”

Sukanya Pillay, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, called for the program to be more discerning.

“We have serious concerns with this practice — it smacks of guilt by association and negatively impacts people who can lose their job despite having done nothing wrong and posing no threat,” she said.

“Ultimately, we can’t abandon fairness, natural justice, and even our employment laws over fear-based conflations.”

Morgan said his department’s decisions have been taken to court 134 times that he knows of; the government has lost 10 cases.

“Every court case, whether we’re successful or not, we review it and we’re constantly looking to tweak the program,” he said. “It is a very difficult program in terms of we’re constantly grappling with grey… very few cases are cut and dried.”

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter:

Share this article in your social network