B.C. mother calls on Ottawa to fix no-fly list error that flags her 4-year-old daughter
Amber Cammish says it can take several additional hours for her daughter to clear airport security
A B.C. mother was among the dozens of frustrated parents on Parliament Hill on Monday, calling on the government to overhaul the country's no-fly list.
Amber Cammish says she routinely faces delays and additional screening at airports because her four-year-old daughter's name is similar to a name on the watchlist.
A spokesman for the federal government says that there are no children on the no-fly list.
Cammish says the confusion has produced delays as short as 15 minutes, but other as long as several hours.
"We are very fearful of travelling internationally," explained Cammish in an interview with On the Coast's Stephen Quinn.
Cammish is part of a group called No Fly List Kids. Its members include about 100 families in similar situations. The group is seeking a redress system that could provide a means to clear children's names from the list.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said on Monday that he agrees there needs to be changes to the system.
"There was a design flaw in the no-fly list was structured, where instead of the airlines providing the flight manifest to the government, the government provides the no-fly list to the airlines," explained Goodale.
However, Cammish worries about how long it will take the government to create and implement a new system.
"We need to, right now, ensure that all of these thousands of Canadians that are falsely identified with this list, need to be able to clear their names so their future electronic identity is no longer tied to this list."
Listen to the full interview below:
With files from On the Coast
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