Absolutely, I was recently on a panel with someone from the National Council of Canadian Muslims, and obviously they have a deep interest in the no-fly list, because of the names of the people who show up on it.
One of the main concerns with it is that people aren't notified when they're put on the no-fly list. They have no idea until they go to the airport and can't get on a plane. Even when they're not allowed on the flight, they're not told they're on the no-fly list. There's no way for them to know. The idea that there could be any means to appeal when you're not even told you're on the list is outrageous.
I think that Professor Atkey and I would both agree that there need to be some huge changes. It makes sense that there will be a no-fly list. It's an international thing. It's not something that Canada can simply stop on its own but there need to be means to appeal; there needs to be notification of people; they need to have the right to contest being put on the list. There have been so many cases where a five-year-old kid is on the list because they have the same name as someone. Someone down the line screwed up.
Maher Arar, as far as we know, is not on the Canadian no-fly list but because the Canadian no-fly list was shared with other countries, he is on their no-fly list, which prevents him from flying anywhere outside the country. This comes back to information sharing. We need to be very careful with what happens to people on the list because if we share that information with other countries, Canadians may be able to get off our list but they won't be able to get off other countries' list, even though they were put on ours mistakenly.