Canada ramps up airline security measures

OTTAWA: Canada’s transport minister on Tuesday announced stepped-up security measures on some international flights to the country, acknowledging a “risk” that led to the United States banning certain personal electronics in the cabin of flights from several countries.

However, Minister Marc Garneau declined to elaborate on the new measures and said travelers to Canada would still be allowed to carry on personal electronics such as laptops.

Garneau said he ordered “some measures to increase security for flights coming from certain countries where the destination was Canada.”

“Those measures have now been put in place to ensure greater security for our air passengers,” he said.

But, the minister added, “I’m not in a position to tell you from where for obvious security reasons, and I’m not in a position to tell you specifically the measures either.”

“For security reasons we don’t talk about these things.”

Canada last month weighed prohibiting laptops and other personal electronics as carry-on items on flights from Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa after both the United States and Britain announced bans.

US authorities said the measures were aimed at thwarting extremists in eight countries who planned to target planes with bombs in electronic devices.

Garneau alluded to the US ban, saying that the intelligence used to support it had been analyzed and a security “risk” had been found to exist.