Report: Toronto Air Security Compromised

A private security company is compromising security checks at Toronto’s international airport to speed up passenger flow, the Globe and Mail said Monday.

Internal documents of Garda World Security Corp., which holds the contract to check passengers at Toronto’s Pearson International and 27 other airports viewed by the newspaper said one passenger circumvented screening entirely in April by walking through an unmanned security gate.

Another document said a Garda employee who had no certification worked for more than a year before being suspended in March, the report said.

Company sources also told the newspaper several Garda managers took over line operation from the screening officers to clear the long lineups of passengers during the holiday rush last Christmas.

However, in an interview, Garda Senior Vice President Allan Bentley told the Globe and Mail that security was at no time compromised at the Lester B. Pearson International Airport and said the officers interviewed by the newspaper were disgruntled employees.