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Lisa Rossington on 'humiliating' airport search
CTV Extended: Cancer survivor recounts security "HUMILIATION"
Another family comes forward
After seeing Strecker's story during, another B.C. family has come forward to talk about what they describe as a similar incident in Calgary.
"I got really upset because my mother went through a similar experience," Thierry Gudel told CTV News.
He said he was appalled by what he describes as airport security's lack of respect in dealing with his 80-year-old mother Lena last August. She was in a wheelchair after shattering her shoulder in a fall.
"They tried to push her up several times, they shook both her shoulders, and she said that the hand went up her skirt, went under her sweater, on her breasts and it went in the back in her underwear," Gudel said.
"They grabbed her arm and pushed it up, and she screamed ‘ouch' and then tried to push it down. They did it three times and she started to cry because of the pain."
He says he plans to file a complaint about his mother's experience.
"I think those people should also be trained in recognizing if there is a disability and how to treat people with respect."
Source: CTV BC
Meanwhile, the parents of four-year-old Ella Wall are upset over the treatment their daughter was given at the same airport. Shannon and Scott Wall were returning from Mexico with Ella and her nine-year-old brother, Alex, on Thursday.
When an official demanded the girl's doll go through the X-ray scanner, the tired child resisted. When she was separated from the doll and it was scanned, she began to cry loudly. The family was told Ella needed to be patted down or put in the full body scanner. Her parents said Ella was too afraid to enter the scanner alone, and that they were not allowed to accompany her. An official approached to pat her down, and she flew into a tantrum. The Walls were then ordered to subject Ella to a pat-down, her parents said. "I tried to tell them she was terrified. She was hysterical. It was a mess," Ms. Wall said.
Source: National Post
TSA TYPE TRRORISM in CANADA
82-year-old woman 'humiliated' by airport security
An 82-year-old cancer survivor from B.C. is traumatized after going through a humiliating search by airport security workers in Calgary.
When the airport scanner detected her prosthetic breast, which is filled with a gel substance, she was subjected to a pat-down during which she was touched everywhere, she said. Ms. Strecker said security then forced her to reveal the prosthesis before boarding. "She looked at me and said, 'Just do it.' So I pulled up this arm with my right hand and it hurt a lot and I started crying and she just looked at me, thinking why are you crying? Well, it hurt a lot," said Ms. Strecker. She said the officers accused her of lying the first time she had been asked about gels.
Cancer survivor Elizabeth Strecker says she was humiliated by security workers at the Calgary airport. Jan. 13, 2011. (CTV)
Elizabeth Strecker was flying home to Abbotsford last week when security officials asked if she had any gels or liquids. She said no, but she'd forgotten about a gel-filled bag she wears to fill the space created when she lost her breast to cancer.
"I didn't think I had to tell the whole world that I had a mastectomy. I didn't think that I had to tell them that," she told CTV News, breaking out in tears.
Suspicious screeners ordered her into a full-body scanner and demanded that she raise her arms, a painful process since Strecker had her operation.
She says she was crying from the pain and embarrassment.
"I was very upset they would make an 82-year-old lady cry like a baby," she said. "It was terribly humiliating and embarrassing for me."
Strecker says she understands the need for security, but wonders if security screeners have forgotten common courtesy and respect for passengers.
"I definitely would like an apology," she said.
Federal Transportation Minister Chuck Strahl, who is also a cancer survivor, says he is disturbed by Strecker's experience.
"It sounds completely unacceptable," he said. "[Screeners] are to treat people with respect. They have a security job to do, and we all understand that, but in doing that, they are to treat people with respect."
Strahl says that private rooms are available for security checks at all airports, if needed.
The screeners work for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, which told CTV News it will pull security tape and interview staff members after Strecker has filed a complaint.
"We have apologized in the past, and if it is required, that is what we will do," CATSA spokesman Mathieu Larocque said.
Strecker's MP, Conservative Ed Fast, says he's ready to help Strecker through the complaint process.
"I'm prepared to go to bat for her, to make sure that the complaints process works for her. We owe her at least that," Fast said.
Strecker's doctor has issued her a medical certificate explaining her situation, but she says she dreads the thought of flying anywhere in Canada again.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington