OTTAWA - Bras were revealed, artificial joints probed and flesh squeezed, prompting scores of complaints last year from disgruntled Canadians subjected to physical searches at airports across the country.
Records obtained by The Canadian Press show the furor over intrusive screening patdowns is not limited to the United States, where angry travellers have openly objected to new security measures.
A 56-year-old woman travelling with her husband through Calgary in June 2009 objected to the thorough physical search a female screening officer gave her in front of other passengers.
"I have no doubt the woman knows my cup size and the size of my underwear," she wrote.
"She felt my body from top to bottom, running her fingers along the underwire of my bra and feeling my breasts, all in full view of every passenger and employee in the area. And she seemed to take great delight in doing so.
"It was degrading, embarrassing and humiliating."
A man en route to Ottawa early one morning wrote that he'd "never been so humiliated" by his search, which included a check of his collar, belt, waistband, "up and down my legs, my butt and my chest and back."
A woman screened at the Regina airport in October 2009 complained of being "mortified by the unexpected exposure of my body."
"I was informed that I would be 'patted down' and the agent then proceeded to lift my shirt up to the bottom of my bra without warning, exposing my stomach, and bottom of my breasts."
A screener at the Montreal airport examined the prosthesis in a man's left shoe. "But the girl then ran her wand over the stump of my foot -- when it was blatantly obvious that something was missing, and no foreign object could be present!"
The complaints were among 1,520 received in 2009-10 by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority from passengers annoyed about searches, rude behaviour, confiscation of items, the introduction of full-body scanners and other issues.
The Canadian Press obtained synopses of the complaints -- with passenger names removed to protect privacy -- under the Access to Information Act.
Air-security authority spokesman Mathieu Larocque said there's a "fairly robust system" for investigating complaints, the vast majority of which are resolved within 30 days. Sometimes grievances lead to changes in procedure, he added.
The air-security authority says officers routinely select passengers at random for additional screening, even if they did not set off the alarm on a walk-through metal detector.
This may include examination with a hand-held wand to confirm that objects such as belts and shoes don't conceal a threat. An officer of the same gender may also conduct a physical search, and travellers have the right to ask that this be done in private in the presence of another officer.
Travellers selected for secondary screening may opt for examination in a full-body scanning machine, which creates a detailed outline of the traveller's body. There are 36 such machines at Canada's larger airports.
In the United States, new screening procedures involve running hands inside a passenger's legs and along the cheek of the buttocks, as well as contact with the groin.
Larocque said Canadian physical search procedures are "a little different" from those sparking outrage in the U.S. but declined to discuss details for security reasons.
A video produced by the authority indicates such searches are to be performed by glove-clad screeners who may cup a traveller's arms and legs with their palms and use the back of their hand to inspect sensitive areas such as a woman's chest.
An Air Canada flight attendant recounted her "demoralizing" June 2009 experience in Calgary, where she was examined in a private room.
"Can you name any occupation where you have to unzip your dress and show people your bra just to start your day of work? Is it a normal procedure to have a flight attendant strip just because their underwire bra beeps?"
Several passengers complained they were not informed of their right to be scrutinized behind closed doors.
"If you are going to do this kind of body search, please respect the dignity of the passengers and do such a search in private," wrote one woman in October 2009.
"Also, it would be nice to have some more information as to why this is being done."
"On one occasion, five men from the field crew were standing around watching the women passengers who were being patted down," complained another woman who travels frequently. "Is there any way that this additional invasion of privacy can be limited?"
Said another traveller of her screening in Vancouver: "I was absolutely mortified and would suggest that a separate room or privacy curtain would be a little more respectful and an explanation as to why this gawdawful groping and squeezing needed to be done."
Larocque said there are signs at screening points noting the option of privacy. "I don't think that the screeners will automatically offer the private search."
