Ottawa eyes biological watch list

Added the Minister: "If we have to develop new technologies to be able to combat [that] and make sure our airlines are secure and safe, we will do so."

Biometric technologies create digital "signatures" of physical characteristics such as fingerprints and iris patterns that can then be checked against computer databases to authenticate identities.

Researchers are also experimenting with DNA "profiles" that encode the genetic blueprints of individuals on ID cards.

The United States already scans the fingerprints of foreign visitors entering the country and stores the information in a database. Visitors from Canada and some countries are excluded from the program.

Meanwhile, Transport Canada has bulked up security at airports by issuing biometric ID cards to staff who work in restricted areas.

"That technology is already in use in our airports," Mr. Cannon noted.

But privacy advocates are disturbed that such intimate personal information could be fed into classified digital databases controlled by the government.

"This idea is just one more of the many, many ways in which our information is becoming more vulnerable to abuse, whether it's abuse by the state, by criminals or by corporations," said Philippa Lawson, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa.

Canada's no-fly list has already come under fire over privacy issues.

This month, federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said the list could become "quite a nightmare" for ordinary Canadians.

She warned that Canadians could find themselves in the "chilling" position of being mistakenly identified as someone on the list, which will be based on threat assessments by the RCMP and CSIS.

Individuals can apply to be removed from the list to the so-called Office of Reconsideration, a review body staffed by independent advisors such as former judges. But critics point out that individuals will not be able to find out why they are on the list in the first place.

Mr. Cannon said his department worked closely with the Privacy Commissioner in developing the system, and is following privacy criteria set by Ms. Stoddart's office.

A Transport Canada official told the Air India inquiry this month that the government has not ruled out sharing the list with foreign governments.

However, Mr. Cannon said no foreign governments have made such a request, and would have to meet "strict criteria" if they did.

"There might be, somewhere down the line, requests that are made of this nature. But then again, they'll have to follow the strict criteria that ... have been put in place by the Privacy Commissioner."

The Transport Canada official also admitted that commercial airlines could already share the list with other governments.

But Mr. Cannon noted that airlines will be fined up to $25,000 if they disclose the personal information of individuals on the list.

Under the new no-fly list, airlines must screen all passengers boarding domestic and international flights.

The Canadian list is expected to be much smaller than the U.S. no-fly list, which contains tens of thousands of names and has ensnared human-rights activists, celebrities and politicians such as U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.

The Canadian list contains "hundreds" of names, Transport Canada revealed recently. However, some airlines have already been using the U.S. list, and the industry has indicated it will continue to do so.

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