President's Message
Dear Viewers:
The Board of Directors of UOAC will be meeting on March 26 - 28, 2010 in Toronto. Normally the meeting would only have the Strategic Planning and Executive Committee members present, but over the last year it has been made very clear to me that the Board members want to meet more frequently. This will give the members an opportunity to express concerns and ideas more clearly and on a timely basis. The face to face approach will ensure that all are on the same page.
The Halton Peel Chapter of UOAC was originally a satellite of Hamilton, ON Chapter. Di Bracken was the founder of this chapter and served as its first President. The Halton Peel Chapter remains an extremely active and viable chapter that meets monthly in Oakville ON. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Halton Peel on its 25th Anniversary of assisting Ostomates in its area. A celebration will take place at the Oakville Golf Club on April 11, 2010.
Over the last few months there has been a great deal of interest and frustration among members regarding the introduction of Full Body Scans (FBS) at airports across Canada. UOAC has received many inquiries and requests to intervene on behalf of our chapter members who are perplexed as to the impact that this method of surveillance will have on persons who have had ostomy surgery. In order to accommodate our members, I have decided to place this topic on our Board of Directors meeting agenda in March, 2010. In the interim, I have been in communication with Mr. Yves Duguay, who is the Senior Vice President of Operations, for The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA).
Mr. Duguay has provided some positive and supportive information that I want to pass on to our member chapters. He has indicated that CATSA plays an integral role in the Government of Canada's public safety and security initiative. Its mission is to protect the public by securing critical elements of the air transportation system, including the screening of passengers and their belongings. While security is CATSA's top priority, providing a high level of customer service and professionalism is also one of its main goals. It is expected that screening officers will conduct the screening of passengers and their belongings with the utmost courtesy and respect. The new FBS technology has now been deployed at airports across Canada and is currently only being used as a secondary means of screening, and is strictly voluntary. A passenger is allowed to choose a physical search in lieu of passing through the scanner.
Mr Duguay outlined the following measures and actions taken by CATSA. The office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada was consulted as part of the original pilot project design, the screening officer who examines the image does not see any passengers before, during or after the screening process, the images are deleted as soon as the review is complete, and finally the images have no passenger information content or reference.
CATSA appreciates that a physical search can be a stressful event, particularly for persons who have an ostomy. The presence of an ostomy pouch beneath a person's clothing requires that screening officers inspect the pouch to ensure that no threat objects are concealed. However, screening officers are expected to use the utmost discretion by not discussing a person's medical condition in the presence of others, and ensure the passenger's dignity is maintained by offering them the option of a private room.
Mr Duguay's recommendations are:
A person with an ostomy should divest themselves of all metallic items prior to passing the walk through metal detectors in order to reduce the likelihood of a secondary screening being required. Please note however, that any passenger may still be selected at random for a secondary search, even if they have not triggered metal detection equipment. In the event that this should happen, and the passenger does not wish to undergo a FBS, he recommends that the passenger indicate to the screening officer that she or he would like a physical search to be performed in private. The informed screening officer will then gladly oblige.
CATSA has noted our concern and will take these into consideration as they review their procedures for passengers with special needs. CATSA, who is always looking for ways to improve its communication, has extended an invitation to UOAC in participate in their creation of a training video for its screening officers nationwide to educate them on special needs of passengers. I have communicated back to him on February 12, 2010, that we would be pleased to be involved in the creation of this video.
I was personally pleased with this response. It would appear that our concerns are being addressed with UOAC a part of that process. Although there is no perfect solution to the problems of airport security, we can relax knowing that Mr. Duguay has listened to the needs of persons who have ostomies and who will be traveling in the future.
The national office of UOAC does carry a passport that was designed by the WCET. This form can be obtained by any member chapter at no cost. It is designed to hold your medical and ostomy supply information. It does not provide any other privileges but many people feel confident that in the case of an emergency their personal information is available to medical personnel.
I hope this message will enlighten many to the reality of today while moving through airport security and its impact on persons with an ostomy who are traveling.
It is my intention to bring the member chapters up to date with regards to the progress of the Ontario Survey in my April message.
We thank you for visiting our website and hope that the information has been helpful. If you would like to contact UOAC, please address comments c/o President at info1@ostomycanada.ca and/or fill out the form in the "Contact Us" section.
Les Kehoe
President UOAC