I can't speak in any detail to how the no-fly list works because I simply don't know.
What I can tell you, though, is that a Canadian citizen is entitled to return to Canada. So the Canadian government would be taking action to assist that person in coming back to Canada, as they have a right to come into Canada. It is enshrined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that a Canadian citizen has the right to enter.
With regard to multiple persons with the name being out there, there could be many people with that name. I think Senator Kennedy was one of the people in the past who was identified on the American no-fly list, because there is a Ted Kennedy someplace who is an Irish Republican Army terrorist of some kind, and they wanted to be sure they were stopping the right Ted Kennedy.
The thing about these lists is that sometimes there is only a name. Sometimes there is a name with a date of birth, a country of citizenship, a passport number, a place of birth, the parents' names, and a lot more detail. But between the two there is often a lot of grey area. How much information do we actually have? When the person is encountered is often when you go to verify whether this is the person who should be on the list, and you have to get information and details about that.
I don't know how many names are on the U.S. no-fly list, and I'm not sure who in the Canadian public service could tell you that.