Canadian Comix News & Culture
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Shahid Mahmood: the latest
:: Posted by Bryan @ 11/21/2006 05:40:00 AM In the wake of the Harper government's announced plans to implement a version of secret U.S. no-fly lists --lists of suspected terrorists who are not allowed on planes-- comes an update on Canadian editorial cartoonist Shahid Mahmood's efforts to find out why he is on a U.S. list and why Canadian airlines seem to be taking their cues from foreign governments.
The oronto Star: "Shahid Mahmood is still awaiting an answer as to why he was denied a ticket for an Air Canada flight.
Despite his tenacity, an impressive array of correspondence from government agencies and an appearance in Parliament, Mahmood is really no closer to finding out on what list his name appears, why it's listed, or if it's a case of mistaken identity.
All he has been told is that in 2004, Canada did not have a no-fly list. He has been left to speculate that the airline was using an American list on a domestic flight, a claim Air Canada denies.
Mahmood said he is also haunted by a meeting he and his wife had last February with a senior official in former transport minister Jean Lapierre's office. According to Mahmood, the official had specifically requested that the three meet away from his office because he had to tell them something in confidence.
Mahmood's plight had already been covered in the Star, and two days before the official contacted him, he had given an extensive interview with CBC radio.
So Mahmood drove to Ottawa, believing, he said, he would finally get answers. Instead, Mahmood claims, the official had the facts of his case wrong, and then asked him about his politics.
"The first thing he said," Mahmood recalled in an interview this week was "`why do you think you're on the list? Don't you think what you do is enough to get you on the watch list,'" which Mahmood took as a reference to his editorial cartoons that are often critical of American foreign policy. Mahmood also claimed that the official told him the more media attention he seeks, "the thicker his file" becomes."
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