Montreal Airport | Tensions and friction around a suspicious package

Diverted flights, banned passengers, addition of additional searches from coast to coast: the recent discovery of a suspicious package at the boarding of a flight leaving from Montreal to India has had repercussions on transport air across the country. The event, the content of which had never been made public, rekindles the tensions which persist between the managers of the Montreal airport and the police, we learned The Press.

The baggage screener was watching the suitcases pass through his X-ray scanner when a detail caught his attention. An obstacle in one of the bags acted as a screen, like a shield, and prevented his camera from properly detecting the rest of the contents. A common problem during pre-board scanning. All you had to do was move the obstacle to get a better view.

The employee did so, then saw the improvised device.

A switch. Electrical wiring. Several lithium batteries. A large metal tube. All bound in an artisanal way and stuffed into the suitcase.

He immediately raised the alarm.

Disagreement on the ground

The event dates back to November 11, at dinner time, during the boarding of British Airways flight 94 which was to connect Montreal to New Delhi via London. The Press was able to reconstruct the details after several interviews with officials who are aware of the file within several organizations.

Many speakers agree that it is representative of the difficult relations between airport management and the police services for more than a year.

According to our information, at the time of the discovery of the suspicious package, the managers of Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) wanted to give the green light for the plane to depart, so as not to disrupt operations too much. They suggested that the flight leave without the two passengers who had tried to board the suspicious device, a Montreal couple of Indian origin and members of the Sikh community. The rapid departure of the plane avoided delays and costs.

According to several sources, police officers from the airport unit of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) arrived and vigorously expressed their disagreement. The police demanded that the plane remain on the ground, against the advice of airport managers, again according to our sources. They questioned the two passengers, who said they used the homemade electronic device found in their suitcase to call their employees for help when they needed them.

They also made the link with the Integrated National Security Team (INST), an anti-terrorism police unit coordinated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). “As in any event that could concern national security, the procedure provides that the SPVM informs the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” declared The Press the communications department of the Montreal police.

The president of the Brotherhood of Police Officers of Montreal, Yves Francoeur, was shocked to learn how strong the pressure was to resume air traffic, while fears of a threat to passengers were high.

“Luckily, in this case, it didn’t turn out badly,” he said.

Sensitive context

The context was not insignificant: a month earlier, Canada had accused India of using criminal gangs to terrorize members of the Sikh community on Canadian soil. India had also been singled out by Ottawa for the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia. A wave of unfounded bomb calls targeted flights from India, one of which led to an emergency landing in Nunavut and the handling of passengers by the Canadian Armed Forces.

A few days before the suspicious device was discovered, clashes broke out between Sikhs and Hindus in Brampton, Ontario.

The route of the British Airways flight on November 11 also had something to attract attention: it followed almost exactly the planned route of Air India Flight 182, the victim of a terrorist attack after its departure from Mirabel in 1985. The bomb , planted by Sikh separatist terrorists, killed 329 people.

The police therefore demanded to remove the three other suitcases checked in by the Montreal couple, which were already on board the British Airways plane.

The luggage was brought onto a carousel in the arrivals area. One of the most experienced explosive detection dogs in Quebec was called to the scene, and he immediately reported a problem with the three suitcases.

The alert was then raised a notch. Flights were diverted to other airports and Canadian customs were closed, causing delays and significant expenses for air carriers.

“A security perimeter has been established so that specialized SPVM teams can analyze [le] content [du colis]. Explosives technicians carried out checks. Following these, it was determined that the package was harmless,” specifies the SPVM communications department.

According to our sources, police experts have determined that the airport sniffer dog may have reacted to the presence of a certain innocuous substance which can sometimes be used in the making of bombs. Shortly before midnight, the flight was authorized to depart, without the two Montreal passengers and their suitcases. When they tried to buy tickets on a subsequent flight, they were refused, says one of our sources. British Airways refused to answer our questions on this subject.

Exceptional security measures

However, the case continued to worry the authorities, who feared that it was a « dry run »a dress rehearsal for a malicious group to test security measures in anticipation of an attack.

A few days later, Transport Canada imposed special security measures at all Canadian airports for flights to India, including a second search before boarding, an exceptional precaution. These measures have since been withdrawn.

“As a precautionary measure, Transport Canada had implemented additional temporary security screening measures for passengers traveling to India. These measures have been lifted,” summarizes Laurent de Casanove, press secretary to the Minister of Transport, Anita Anand.

At the same time, anti-terrorism investigators returned to take possession of the suspect device to analyze it in more depth. They also carried out checks on the couple who had been banned from flying.

“The RCMP Integrated National Security Team [EISN] has indeed taken charge of this file. More in-depth interviews were conducted with the couple in question and these corroborate the information obtained by the SPVM,” says Sergeant Charles Poirier, RCMP spokesperson.

“Secondly, we sent the suspicious device to the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive incident section [CBRNE] of the RCMP in Ottawa so that it can carry out an assessment. The results of the expertise confirm that the device is harmless and poses no danger. The investigation concluded that the explanations provided by the couple during the interviews turned out to be true,” continues Sergeant Charles Poirier.

“In this present case, at no time has the safety of the public been put in danger,” concludes the spokesperson.

Accused of prioritizing profit

The event, however, made it possible to observe that in the event of a real threat, not all the stakeholders present at the airport are on the same wavelength. For a long time, ADM managers and police officers deployed at the airport have been in conflict over security measures that impose significant costs on the airport.

In a confidential report submitted to SPVM management last June, the commander of neighborhood station 5, which covers the airport territory, claimed that airport managers were seeking to reduce their expenses to the detriment of security.

The report notably relates that ADM began in 2023 to open its search points for night travelers before the start of the shifts of the armed police officers of the airport unit, who are supposed to intervene if a weapon is discovered in luggage . A “scheme” to save costs, according to the commander.

Transport Canada then forced the airport authority to pay for the presence of armed police officers at all times when search points are open, leading to significant overtime costs. Disagreement over this expense led to the opening of a new call for tenders for police services at the airport. Victorious at the end of this call for tenders, the Sûreté du Québec will replace the SPVM at the airport from 1^is January.

Feedback in progress

Questioned by The Press regarding the disagreement between police officers and airport managers during the November 11 episode, ADM spokesperson Éric Forest explained that he could not discuss security processes in detail.

“However, we would like to point out that feedback sessions are currently underway with the various partners involved, a common practice for us after any event requiring the collaboration of several stakeholders,” he says.

The spokesperson adds that the “ultimate objective” of airport management when discovering the suspicious package was security.

“As part of the situation mentioned, ADM Security teams collaborated, as they systematically do, with their partners, in particular the carrier, the SPVM, the RCMP and Transport Canada,” he said.