Fitting The Profile

Well, bloody hell, those human rights tribunals again. Putting right all the dreadfully upsetting errors in judgement that prey upon innocent people, restraining their freedoms and overlooking their human rights entitlements. Which sees Bombardier ordered to pay over $300,000 in penalties for having refused to train a Canadian pilot who had been labelled a threat to aviation and national security by U.S. transport safety officials.

Bombardier, of course, can afford to pay the fine. It's not a money thing, after all, but a matter of ethical and moral treatment of an aspiring pilot who feels it his right to have the training he feels is owing him as a Canadian. The tribunal ordered Bombardier to ignore "standards and decisions" arrived at by American authorities in the company's determination of who they may train in Canada. This is Canada, after all, not the United States.

Oops, yes, there is that border thing and that sovereignty issue, and the separateness of two distinct countries with not necessarily matched values. On the other hand, there is the very close partnership of those neighbouring countries in trade, security, rules and regulations, issues of lawfulness and safety. And Canadian pilots do land Canadian planes in the United States. And they won't, if those planes are flown by pilots who have been placed on a proscribed list.

That was back in 2004, when Pakistani-born Canadian Javed Latif was refused pilot training by Bombardier on the basis of his already having been denied instructions in the U.S., on national security grounds. He had, at that time, attempted to secure training on the Challenger 604 jet. Given the Americans' experience a few years earlier with training men of Muslim background, they have since been somewhat wary, and Mr. Latif was caught in that wariness-net.

Completely understandable, under those very particular circumstances. But the tribunal was unequivocal in their censure, outlining that Mr. Latif was "a victim of discrimination based on his ethnic and national origin and that his right to the safeguard of his dignity was compromised." His compromised dignity is now being mollified to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars.

But this is a current ruling, and Mr. Latif, in 2008, when the U.S. authorities lifted him off the proscribed list, enjoyed the benefit of three subsequent training sessions at Bombardier. So the company is considering a review of the ruling, to decide whether to appeal. But the tribunal president, Gaetan Cousineau is triumphant, claiming the ruling to be "without precedent".

The first of its kind to address the impact of post-9/11 security measures in Canada. And Mr. Latif feels a whole lot better about the humiliation and financial problems he claims to have suffered at the time. The baseless suspicions levelled against Arabs and Muslims after the 9/11 attacks, geared on stereotypes and racial profiling to identify them as potential national security threats, were clearly untenable.

Let's hear it for reason and debate and clearing the air on the matter of undue suspicion targeting men who clearly fit a profile that isn't supposed to exist.