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Sad, Scary Travel: Canadian Man Changes Name, Successfully Avoids U.S. Passenger Watch List Hassles

September 21, 2008 at 12:38 PM | by | Comments (0)

Well, look here, a big old can of worms. Let's open it, shall we? A frequent flier from Canada who endured seven years of additional screening and lengthy delays at U.S. airports due to his name being erroneously included on a flight passenger watch list has given up and changed his name.

The former Mario Labbé, a Quebec record company executive, had once been a victim of identity theft, which landed his name on a list of people to receive additional screening by U.S. authorities. That seems like a reasonable enough error, but Labbé said he couldn't convince the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to give him the all-clear, even though they had acknowledged that his name was on the list improperly. So he said screw it, and changed his name to François Mario Labbé.

As the CBC points out, even though it's only a slight change - just adding a new first name - it's been enough to fool the U.S. customs computers so far.

Meanwhile, we'd like to point out that while we're pleased that Monsieur Labbé is once again at liberty to inflict Celine Dion on the lower 48, the fact that he had to go to this length to regain his freedom of movement - and the additional fact that he was successful - just illustrates the difficulties in balancing security and expediency in air travel today.

While they make for fun punching bags, the TSA and Homeland Security people aren't dumb. There's a lot on the line when they make and enforce their policies, and I'm sure they'd rather be teased for the perceived silliness of some of their overly-cautious actions than blamed for letting a potential terrorist on an airplane.

Still, there's got to be a better way than this for someone who is falsely placed on a watch list to prove their innocence. While Labbé's story makes for guaranteed headlines, I don't think he did this as a publicity stunt. The guy just wanted to fly, and had been repeatedly frustrated by U.S. authorities. What would you do?

[Photo: bi-rational.com]

Related Stories:
· Quebec Man Changes Name to Dodge Relentless Airport Screening [cbc.ca/Yahoo! News Canada]
· TSA Coverage [Jaunted]

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