Air travellers who are selected for a body pat-down at Canadian airports will be told they can undergo the procedure in private, under new guidelines from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.
Until now, air travellers were required to ask if they could be searched in a private room.
The new measures were announced Wednesday, as uproar continued among travellers in the United States over similar security searches at airports there.
"CATSA had been planning to install private search areas for some time. The attention that airport security screening is currently receiving accelerated our deployment plans," the Canadian air-security agency said in a statement.
"For CATSA, getting the balance right between security and customer service is our absolute priority," it said.
Mathieu Larocque, a spokesperson for the agency, said the changes mean that passengers asked to undergo a pat-down will be able to do so in booths that will be set up at major Canadian airports soon.
"We will have the screening officers offering the private search to every passenger that is selected for a physical search, as opposed to waiting for the request from the passenger," Larocque said. "We are being more proactive to make sure that they are aware and that they use that option if they like."
CATSA says it has received more than 1,500 complaints from Canadian passengers over the past year about the invasive pat downs and body scanners.
Copies of the complaints from 2009-10 were released to the The Canadian Press, with the passengers' names removed.
In one complaint, a 56-year-old woman who was travelling with her husband described being searched by a female screener at the Calgary airport as "degrading, embarrassing and humiliating."
"I have no doubt the woman knows my cup size and the size of my underwear," the woman wrote.
Many of those who were subjected to pat-downs said they were unaware that they could have asked to undergo the search away from other travellers.
U.S. protest
Meanwhile, Canadians who were travelling between the U.S. and Canada's busiest airport on Wednesday saw little delay, despite an attempt to clog up air travel by protesters opposing "invasive" security checks south of the border.
Most passengers who arrived at Toronto's Pearson Airport from the U.S. on Wednesday morning said they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, a suggestion that National Opt-Out Day had limited impact on the air transit system.
Acclaimed British-Indian author Salman Rushdie was among the air travellers who touched down at Pearson from the U.S. He said his flight was uneventful and that he had no issues with the increased security.
"There was this new machine so I went through that. It was fine," Rushdie told CTV Toronto's Galit Solomon.
The day of protest in the U.S. was organized through Facebook more than two weeks ago. It was scheduled to coincide with the busiest travel day of the year in the U.S., as travellers fly home to family ahead of American Thanksgiving.
The protest was meant to focus growing anger against enhanced airport security procedures that now require about 20 per cent of airline passengers at U.S. airports to submit to a full-body X-ray scan.
Protest organizers have called the scans a "virtual strip search" and are encouraging passengers to submit to a physical pat-down instead.
While stepping through the body scanner take about 20 seconds per passenger, pat-downs can take up to four minutes. If the protest goes as planned, that could mean huge delays.
Protesters across the U.S. were taking the protest seriously, although some were getting cheeky with how they expressed their displeasure.
While some chose to carry handmade fliers and placards, and wear T-shirts bearing slogans, 43-year-old Robert Shofkom elected to wear a kilt, sans underwear, while flying out of Austin, Tex.
"If you give them an inch, they won't just take an inch. Pretty soon you're getting scanned to get into a football game," the IT specialist said.
Shofkom was disappointed to learn that the Austin airport had not yet been equipped with body scans, but wore the kilt anyway in solidarity with other travellers dressing similarly to protest the increased security measures.
To make matters worse, a winter storm system in the West is threatening to cause its own flight delays.
The head of The U.S. Transportation Safety Administration says authorities are braced to deal with any delays.
When asked by ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday about the boycott plan, John Pistole replied, "There are some unknowns" as passengers arrive at airports. But he added: "That's one of the variables that we are prepared to deal with."
Pistole said he hopes most passengers won't engage in the boycott and reminded them that TSA screeners are just doing their jobs and "just want to get you through" the safety checkpoints.
To speed security checks, the TSA is encouraging passengers to leave items such as cellphones, belts and heavy jewelry in their carry-on luggage, because their chances of getting a pat-down increase if they set off the metal detector.
The ban on liquids and gels in carry-on luggage still applies, so passengers should avoid carrying those, when possible.
Slip-on shoes are also recommended, as travellers are still required to remove their shoes and put them through the X-ray machine.
While the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority says it did not expect delays at Canadian airports, just one unruly passenger looking to cause a fuss could spell a long delay for fellow fliers.
An increase in security checks was implemented by the TSA a month ago, after a failed terrorist plot late last month to blow up cargo planes headed to the States.
Many travellers have resisted the changes, with some saying they don't like the idea of a scanner that can see below their clothes. Others worry about the radiation emitted by the machines, which have so far been installed in 70 of the nearly 450 commercial airports in the U.S.
With files from The Canadian Press
