Notes for a speech
by Jacques Duchesneau
President and CEO
Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA)

International Trade and Technology Summit

June 24, 2004
Calgary, Alberta

Introduction

Muchas gracias. Me allegro de estar aquì en Calgary. Bienvenidos a nuestros amigos mexicanos.

Thank you. It is a great pleasure to be here with you today in Calgary-"heart of the new west - "to explore the "new realities" that affect us all in the post 9/11 world. This conference is about building relationships and understanding between government and business in Canada, the United States and Mexico and about furthering trade and technology business growth within NAFTA.

Terror has become an unwelcome addition to our landscape - a challenge we did not invite but cannot ignore. It was announced in the newspapers a few days ago that the number of international terrorism episodes rose slightly last year, and that the number of those injured in all international terrorism episodes went up by more than 50 percent.

The imperative for nations to defend themselves - their people and their critical infrastructure-against terrorists and other security threats is the elephant in the living room when it comes to international trade discussions. We can pretend that the elephant is not there. But it is more honest and realistic to recognize it and find ways to work with it.

Clearly this conference has chosen to recognize this security reality and to grapple with its implications. And for that I commend you.

In the next few minutes I would like to focus on four significant lessons which I believe we need to recognize within this new security reality; Security, Immunity, Integration, Technology.

Introduction to CATSA

First, however, perhaps you will permit me briefly to introduce my organization and perspective. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority is a federal agency created in April 2002 and regulated by Transport Canada. Our mandate is to ensure that air travel and airports in Canada are secure against criminal or terrorist attack. Our primary responsibility is security screening of passengers and baggage. We also acquire, deploy and maintain explosives detection equipment and handle security screening of airport personnel who access restricted areas. We work with the RCMP on the Canadian Air Carrier Protective Program, also known as Air Marshalls as well as airport policing.

CATSA is on the front line and plays a key role in protecting the public and ensuring the security of critical points in the air transportation system, and to this end we work closely with Canadian and international security agencies.

Lesson One: Security Trumps Trade

In protecting people and infrastructure, however, we are also essential to preserving the continuity of trade and Canada's economic well-being. How can this be? Most of you are probably frequent business travellers, and I suspect that when you are standing in line to be screened by CATSA certified personnel you are not thinking of how good we are for your business. National borders, after all, impede trade by definition.

As much as we strive to be efficient and professional, security screening can cause delays and sometimes frustration.

Perhaps some security screening is unavoidable, but, some might suppose, how much more business could be done if government would give the benefit of the doubt to moving people and goods with the fewest hurdles and restrictions?

At one time, perhaps, such thinking was more common. It is much harder to think this way today. Not only in terms of personal safety, but business success. Let me state a vital reality in the post 9/11 world: Security trumps trade.

Perhaps, when push came to shove, this was usually the case for governments in the past. But it is undoubtedly true today. Terrorists are bent on exacting the highest cost in human lives possible in order to undermine confidence in western governments. In order to create fear and panic among civilian populations. In order to send a political or ideological message (including religious ones). And this is a risk that governments will do anything to avoid.

On September 11th, the key weapon was a pair of box cutters - the kind used to open cardboard boxes - about as low-tech as you can get. And yet they were enough to force open the cockpit doors and turn those planes into missiles.

My point is simply that terrorists have a mind set that enables them to adapt and to surprise. It is trite but true to say that life is not fair and, in the case of terrorism, the playing field is not even.

A terrorist who fails can - and will - try again and again, refining his plans, perfecting his means. Air security statistics are quite different than crime statistics reported by police. In our business, we need only be wrong once - make one mistake, overlook one piece of information, miss one suspicious movement - and thousands of people can die. Our statistics must be 0% per 40 million every year. We must be right 100% of the time. What would happen if one terrorist slipped through undetected among the 150,000 passengers and workers we screen each day in Canada and hijacked an American plane or detonated a bomb on or over U.S. soil? I think we all know the answer.

We would be on full alert and would shut down all commerce and activity between our two countries. And this would have absolutely devastating consequences for our national economy.

In 2003, over 570 billion Canadian dollars worth of trade crossed the Canada-U.S. border. Or as Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson put it recently, that's more than 1 million dollars in merchandise trade between our two countries each minute of every hour throughout the entire year. This is a preoccupation for all of us. On May 27, the headlines in all the papers said "White House Fears Attacks / FBI on High Alert." The front page of the newspapers pointed out that an Al-Qaeda-related organization had been preparing to strike the United States hard. Among the dangerous individuals being sought was one suspect who had been planning to hijack a plane in Canada and fly it into a building in the U.S. Day in and day out, this is my nightmare. In fact, a survey conducted in the US in April and May 2004 revealed that 89 per cent of affluent Americans cited the potential impact of terrorism on the economy as their number 1 concern.

Is it too extreme to conclude that trade would be disrupted across the board? I don't think so. Remember that the 2001 terrorists did not enter the United States from Canada, but their actions had a sobering, if temporary, effect on cross border trade. And we can look at other recent events to see how a crisis can have severe economic impact.

A year ago, one single cow in Alberta tested positive for BSE, also known as mad cow disease.

And this one cow meant that Canadian beef exports-the third highest in the world in 2002, valued at over 4 billion dollars-dropped virtually to zero.

About 90% of all Canadian beef exports had gone to the United States, but all this was lost when the U.S. chose the security of its own industry over continued trade.

Or look at the economic consequences of the SARS outbreak in the spring of 2003. This did not result in closed borders, but it did cause a severe drop in tourism and travel, both for business and leisure, declining retail sales, and general apprehension among the population, especially in Toronto.

This even resulted in some people isolating or even quarantining themselves in a fashion not seen in North America since the great influenza outbreak of 1919. Although much of the SARS impact was social and cultural, the Conference Board of Canada estimated that it would mean lost national economic activity of one and a half billion dollars in 2003.

I mention this in order to establish that trade is very much at the mercy of crisis events.

And while I do not want to minimize the difficulties of BSE and SARS, I suggest that their economic impact could be viewed as minor compared to a shutdown of our borders as a result of a terrorist act.

There are several other impacts to consider as well. On June 22, newspapers declared that tougher security rules in place after the 2001 hijack attacks will cost U.S. airlines about $518 million in lost revenue in 2004.

To emphasize this even further, on September 11th, Canada, as the closest neighbour of the United States, found itself at the heart of an unprecedented national response, involving coordination among our airports, police and intelligence agencies. More than 224 flights, carrying 33,000 passengers, were diverted to Canadian airports.

And the Government did something it had never done before - it shut down our country's entire airspace.

If any of you have ever seen the computer screens that monitor all of the airplanes flying over head, you'll know that they are usually filled with literally hundreds of aircraft at a time - - -like swarms of bees, all coordinated from control towers on the ground.

On September 11th it was absolutely amazing to see those computer screens go blank, without a single aircraft flying over Canada.

Given the new reality-that security trumps trade-CATSA and other government policing agencies are protecting Canada's economic interests as much as they are protecting the physical security of our citizens.

Lesson Two: Canada is not immune

Let me move to a second lesson of the new world reality. Canada is not immune from terrorist activity or violence.

It is true that Canadian Confederation resulted, in part, because of a terrorist threat-the fear of Fenian agitation against the British crown-and we have had occasional instances of political violence.

The assassination of Darcy McGee in 1868. The Red River Rebellions. The rise of the FLQ and the 1970 October Crisis.

But overall, Canadians perceive their country as a peaceful refuge from the troubles of the world. Terrorism happens "over there." Not here.

Even before 9/11 it was clear that Canada could not be complacent. As former CSIS Director Ward Elcock testified powerfully 6 years ago today in 1998, "with perhaps the singular exception of the United States, there are more international terrorist groups active here than any other country in the world." Our historic friendship with the United States, our shared border, the presence of many American assets in Canada, and the openness of our democratic and multicultural society has made us an attractive base and a potential target for terrorists.

Canadians certainly have no reason to consider themselves beyond the scope of international terror. Think of the Air India bombing. Or al-Qaeda agent Ahmed Ressam who operated from a Montreal apartment before being arrested while trying to smuggle explosives into the United States.

Or, more recently, the well publicized connections of the Kadhr family with Osama bin Laden. Or the March arrest of Ottawa resident Momin Khawaja as a co-conspirator in a London England bomb plot.

Because terrorists see our nation as a potential target, or as a launching pad for attacks against the United States, Canada must undertake its security obligations with the utmost resolve and commitment. And I am pleased to say that the government of Canada is doing so. The creation of CATSA and the strengthening of security at our airports and in the air is an important part of this commitment. However, we do not stand alone.

We are part of an integrated network of security and policing to which the Government of Canada recently committed another 690 million dollars. We applaud our government's initiative in this regard and we do our best to support the goals and objectives of this important commitment.

Lesson Three: Integration is Essential

Globalization is usually thought of as something that facilitates trade around the world, but it is also something that facilitates terrorism. No country can remain an island unto itself in this new world when it comes to law enforcement and security.

Ease of transportation and communications mean that old borders between countries are rapidly diminishing in importance for criminals and especially for terrorists who have shown tremendous ability to coordinate their actions around the world. Those of us who are trying to defend our nation's security must likewise recognize that integration is essential to have any chance of success. Integration both between countries and within countries.

Integration is easy to preach and hard to do. The fact is, integration requires trust, and trust requires experience and personal connection with other people and other organizations. That does not happen overnight.

Integration means sharing information. It has been said that knowledge is power. Today, I would suggest that it is the sharing of knowledge that confers power.

Despite the challenges, I believe that integration is essential, and Canada has properly been taking important steps in this direction.

The very fact that we have a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness shows this commitment to integration. This new portfolio combines security aspects which formerly were in different departments.

And many of the initiatives which the government announced in April speak to this commitment:

Creating an Integrated Threat Assessment Centre and Government Operations Centre to ensure that everyone in the security and intelligence community has access to the information they need about possible threats to Canada when they need it, and to coordinate our response. Unfortunately, the intelligence community has a tendency to react like they did during the cold war era. This has to change. Information must be shared. Terrorism has taken a global approach and we in turn must have a global approach to combating it and staying one step, if not many, steps ahead.

Further initiatives include:

Convening a high-level national Cyber-security Task Force with public and private representation to develop a National Cyber-Security Strategy.

Engaging our North American partners to broaden the Canada-U.S. Smart Borders Action Plan to new areas such as biosecurity, food safety, cybersecurity, public health, marine and transportation security.

These things complement other ongoing initiatives, for example the transnational collaboration to undermine terrorist financing (FINTRAC), or the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETS) which bring together law enforcement agencies from Canada and the US at border points across North America, or the new N-III initiative which will improve operability among a variety of police agencies.

Should we re-orient our focus from stopping terrorist attacks to stopping terrorist plans in the works? In other words, do we need to move "upstream", with a more concerted effort at rooting out the terrorists themselves rather than protecting the potential targets of their attacks? We all know that security is about control within a boundary. If the boundary is constantly shifting and is impossible to define or predict, what does that imply about security.

These questions do not yield easy answers, but I think they are worth asking nonetheless. By constantly asking ourselves if we are doing the right things and doing them right, we will vastly improve our odds of success.

From its inception, CATSA has been closely integrated with both Canadian and international security agencies to achieve its mission of protecting the public and ensuring the security of critical points in the air transportation system.

I like to compare air transportation security to the layers of an onion.

The first layer of the "onion" takes place away from the airport where intelligence is gathered and shared by a number of agencies worldwide. The RCMP and CSIS receive and analyze the risks and information, perform security checks and intervene, if necessary, to prevent security-related incidents before they occur at airports.

The next layer is the security perimeter around each of Canada's 89 airports. These are guarded by a combination of public and private security services, including local and federal police and airport employees.

Check in area is the third layer of the onion, and is the responsibility of the airlines.

The fourth layer is the screening point, this is the aspect with which CATSA is most publicly identified because, since December 2002, we have been screening passengers as well as both carry-on and checked baggage. Pre-boarding screening officers are the front line of the fight against air terrorism.

To give you an idea of the scope of their work, in the past year, they have intercepted over 660,000 objects at various Canadian screening points, including knives hidden in passengers' footwear, jackknives, spiked bracelets and pepper spray. These represent many sources of danger.

Airports and CATSA work together to prevent unauthorized access to restricted areas. CATSA is currently finalizing the non-passenger screening program and will soon implement the restricted area identification card that will include biometrics.

Air carriers handle the enplaning process and ensure passenger/baggage matching.

Airports and CATSA again work together on access to the apron, runways and taxiways.

Aircraft and passengers in flight are the core and most important part of the "onion" that we must protect. We work with the RCMP, which is responsible for placing Air Marshalls on select flights by managing the contractual agreement for the provision of this service.

As you can see, as one moves through the various layers of the onion-from outside the airport, through check-in and airport security, and on to the aircraft and cockpit, there is a decreasing probability of successful intervention, and an increasing severity of outcome from potential terrorist activity. In this business, early intervention is essential, and so we place great importance on expanding our partnerships and information sharing with airlines, airports, police and security forces in all parts of the globe.

Lesson four: Technology doesn't stand alone

Finally, I would like to comment on a fourth lesson which I think relevant to the new security reality.

And that is that technology, while a great help for security agencies, does not replace human intelligence and judgment.

Thanks to the creativity, innovation and dedication of scientists, computer specialists, engineers and others throughout the industry-many of you attending this conference-the nature of police and security work has changed drastically in the last decade.

Just thinking about the world of airport security, we have remarkable abilities that were unthinkable not so long ago:

Canada is planning to introduce digital chips in passports to thwart forgeries.

Biometrics such as iris and fingerprint scanning technologies make it possible to ensure that only properly cleared workers can access sensitive areas of an airport, or even to fast track pre-cleared "trusted passengers" through airport screening or customs.

New anti-missile technology put on all El Al Flights. Using GPS satellites to create invisible boundaries within airports which only employees with properly coded I.D. could enter without triggering an alarm.

"Anti-hijack autopilot systems to prevent terrorists crashing a plane." Facial recognition software which can link to international databases to identify terrorists or other criminals in a crowded terminal.

These are all possible technological solutions which would help to make airports and aircraft more secure. Some are being tested. Some are still in development.

However, we must remember that technology is morally neutral and can be adopted by both sides.

Technology helps the good guys share information and communicate rapidly, but also allows the bad guys to direct and finance global terrorist networks, hiding behind advanced encryption tools.

I wish that one of you in this room would invent a machine which we could use at airport screening checkpoints to identify people with criminal intentions. "Beep once if it's ok, beep twice for a terrorist." But I'm not holding my breath. Because law enforcement work, in the end, is about people more than technology. And until we can make windows into men's hearts, we will have to sweat it out the old fashioned way.

This is why CATSA has worked so hard to create a National Training and Certification Program that is second to none in the world. It involves close to 200 hours of training to make sure that every screening officer in this country is qualified to do their job according to our standards. Our training program also emphasizes customer service, which is critical for officers who screen more than forty million travellers a year.

We must also remember that terrorists are well aware of the technologies available to law enforcement agencies and of their routines and practices. We cannot afford to become complacent or allow our thinking to become predictable.

Do you remember the Maginot Line? It was built in the aftermath of the First World War to protect France by defending the traditional German invasion route along the eastern frontier. It was a modern, technologically unsurpassed and militarily impregnable defensive system.

But it was built to fight the previous war, and was not relevant to the war which overwhelmed France in 1940 because the second war was about airplanes more than ground troops.

Philosopher George Santayana famously observed that "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." But, adds former U.S. State Department Russian expert Robert Tucker, so also "are those who only remember it." Leaders must avoid becoming fixated on the past lest it blind them "to what is novel and different about a present set of circumstances.".

When it comes to fighting terrorism, we must not allow ourselves to be locked into yesterday's paradigm, defending against yesterday's attacks. Instead, we must be skilled chess players, seeing the board one move, two moves, many moves into the future, and using all of our resources-human and technological - to stay ahead of terrorists and their resolve to do harm.

That is the new reality of security in Canada and around the globe.

Thank you.