The big story in Canada:
MONTREAL — A 45-second YouTube video showing two niqab-wearing women boarding an Air Canada flight without showing their faces at Montreal’s Trudeau airport is creating a buzz on the Internet.
And it has elicited a strongly worded statement from the Canadian government.
“The situation is deeply disturbing and poses a serious threat to the security of the air travelling public,” Federal Transport Minister John Baird said in a statement issued Sunday.
He has instructed his department to look into the matter and report back.
The video:
My thought about all of this? Two words: Shirley Sherrod. One thing that that mess taught us is how badly YouTube can be abused. 45 seconds of a video is no longer enough; we want to see the whole video or another video. Nor do we want just commentaries on this one and only video. We have to wait and see more. Wait and only judge after we have seen more.
I don’t see how this poses any more threat than not being allowed to see someone’s genitals.
She went through the metal detector right? So what’s people’s problem?
this is the boarding gate – they’ve already passed through security.
if you wear a niqab anywhere but the ME, you’re an idiot or a domestic abuse victim.
It’s not the job of the gate checkers to verify identity. That’s what security checkpoints are for. All the airline employees care about is that you don’t get on the plane without a ticket. They could all be wearing wookie costumes and it wouldn’t matter, if they were verified at security let them on the plane.
The music makes me angry…. and SCARED… Look there—MUSLIMS!!! AGGHHHHG
The woman likely moved on ahead to make a bit of room. I sometimes have done that when traveling with my family and someone else has the tickets. No point in crowding the desk.
And to top it off, security did nothing about the guy casing the airport with a camera — sneaking around, filming boarding procedures covertly.
Oh fuck this stupid video. Who the fuck cares?
Try walking into a bank wearing a ski mask during the winter. Odds are you are stopped. I would not feel comfortable in a bank or getting on an airplane with people not showing their faces. And #4, you do not know they are Muslims. They could be wingnut militia members, which is way more scary. But you cannot tell.
The other interesting thing noted in the video, is that that man controls all the passports. Control the passports and control the women.
I wonder if someone took shaky footage of me carrying aboard a backpack that exceeded the size and weight limitations.
@2 Yeah they stopped the second ID check at the gate a while ago. So long as they were positively ID’d at the security checkpoint its not really a big deal. Plus at most checkpoints I have seen they have a special area to do searches and the like where people who want to wear those damn things can go and show their face to a woman officer in private.
Its silly, but then tolerating others often requires making accommodation for their nonsense.
I didn’t know you could bring your herd animals on a plane. Do you have to buy individual tickets or…?
spot on, charles. also, @11, how does it feel to be a piece of shit racist?
@8 The Verity (credit union) in our neighborhood was robbed earlier this year. You can’t even wear sunglasses in there anymore.
@12, 11 is making a point that much of Islamic society view women as chattel.
@14 and I’m making the point that both @11 and you are dumb pieces of horse-shit if you think there’s such as a thing as an ‘Islamic society’ view. Or does that not gibe with your clearly ‘Christian society’ view?
@15 Are you really such an idiot to not see that in much of the Islamic world women’s rights suck ass? Sorry, but beliefs matter, and lots of Muslims, not all, but lots, have some dumb as fuck ones.
I never felt damaged by having a second bit of security in the airport, especially if it moved quickly. It’s not like they would be singling you out if they asked you to show your face to identify yourself. And, it’s not like somebody else at the gate couldn’t have missed something, could it?
Maybe some other form of identification would be preferable, such as a retina scan, or fingerprints?
I don’t really get the outrage…
1) It is common practice for one person to carry all the info for a party… Even when they are all adults.
2) How does showing a face help prevent someone from killing everyone including themselves?
Terrorist:
“Oh I was totally going to Lockerbie that plane but they saw my face so I guess I’ll just go enjoy the sights of Canada instead.”
Heh. I’ve said this before elsewhere, but some of you probably haven’t read it. The only piece of ID I use when I fly is my concealed carry permit. It freaks the living bejesus out of them, but it’s “governmentally-issued photo ID” and there isn’t a damned thing they can do about it.
Human beings are silly.
The only thing disturbing about this video is the soundtrack. Jeebus.
@19: “I’m a badass! I carry a gun! Everybody look at me!”
@15, Calm down. Islamic society exists, as does Christian society. Although heavily influenced by Judeo-Christian tradition, Western society does not equal Christian society. Luckily for us, Western society has undergone the Enlightenment and the bloody Reformation, that did much to change the way we view religion and its place in society. Islam has no such corollary, but it could sure use one. While there are plenty of Christians who would like to be governed by a theocracy, they do not represent a hegemony. Islam is, by its own definition, the purest form of government and this view is held by MOST Muslims.
How many people commenting here have actually gone through the security check point of the PET airport in Montreal recently?
It wasn’t long ago that Muslim women in Quebec were given the permission to vote without showing their face.
Canada needs to join the rest of the French Commonwealth nations in banning the Burqa in public.
I was in that same airport last month, and their security is pretty goddamn good. Plus, they have a body scanner which I had to go through. Whoever put this up on YouTube is totally full of shit, or mentally retarded.
Thanks for being sensible, Charles. I’ve flown out of that airport and faces +++ are shown at the security desk, just not when boarding. Only boarding passes are generally needed when boarding.
I have a general rule that once someone adds music to a videoclip purporting to be news, I need to be very suspicious of the “reporter’s” motives. This is just FUD.
That video was probably shot and posted by a closet-racist teabagging asshole from Arizona.
Ok, so instead of trying to find the facts we’re playing a game of let’s guess who’s racist? Fine. Maybe the guy who shot the video is racist. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? But a Muslim with a veil is a racist for sure. She would never want to be left alone with a black person or a homosexual. You know any religious fundies who aren’t bigots? That’s right, you don’t. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and whatever fundamentalists are all social retards. So yeah…
@25
Why? So muslims can claim they are persecuted more? So muslim women who are forced by their husbands or communities to wear a full face veil will simply not be allowed to leave their homes? Does that make them more free?
Cultural assimilation isn’t a one way street. Diversity doesn’t allow us to only see the parts of other cultures that we approve of.
@30: Similar “leave our culture alone!” arguments were once very popular in the Confederate States. Fortunately, that particular instance of cultural relativism came to an end.
@19 What state do you live in? In WA we get a little piece of paper.
@ 32, 5280 = 39.79N 104.88W 5400′ aka Denver.
I hope you had a grand evening and discover a beautiful sunrise to greet your day. xo