Chris NoFly

An unpleasant airport surprise for anti-masker Chris Saccoccia (AKA Chris Sky), who recently learned he’s been added to the No Fly List.

Poor Mr. Sky will be keeping his feet planted on the ground for the foreseeable future.

From its inception, the No Fly List (“Passenger Protection Program”) has disproportionately affected Muslims and people with Muslim-sounding names. The whole situation is ironic because Sky seems to have been a proponent of profiling tactics in law enforcement.

The Passenger Protect Program is a highly secretive passenger-screening program. It’s stated objective is to prevent 1) terrorism on flights, 2) individuals from travelling to participate in a terrorist activity.

But there are some significant flaws...

• It creates undue hardships for those who are flagged as false positives;

• It undermines the right to due process for individuals on the list through a lack of transparency and access to information;

• It lacks a fair appeal process;

• It allows unregulated information-sharing with foreign entities which can lead to human rights abuses;

• Its efficiency and necessity have never been demonstrated

Lawyer Faisal Bhaba has described the No Fly List as:

One of the most damaging instruments of racial and religious profiling currently in place in this country. It is the national security analogue to carding in the urban policing context. Since its implementation, it has caused so much damage without any proven or demonstrable benefit that we simply cannot justify it in our rule of law democracy.

There is no redress process for false positives of the Passenger Protect Program. This means there are children and adults who get falsely flagged every time they travel, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Our Charter freedoms and civil liberties have BEEN under attack for decades. People like Chris Sky coming out of the woodwork as civil liberties heroes need to do their homework.