You can thank Richard Reid, a.k.a. the failed “shoe bomber,” every time you remove your footwear at airport security checks. The “underwear bomber” is why you have to rub your pants and get your palms swabbed for explosive residue. Limited liquid? A failed 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot.But passengers, irate passengers, who will soon be banned from bringing laptops on their lengthy flights to the U.S. or U.K., will likely not be given a simple answer as to why. Flights to Canada may also soon be impacted. News of the surprise travel restriction began spreading Monday night and came into effect in the U.S. early Tuesday. Passengers travelling from eight mainly Middle Eastern countries directly to the U.S. will be forbidden from carrying on electronics larger than a cellphone. Airlines were told they have 96 hours to comply. By Tuesday afternoon, Britain said they were implementing similar restrictions on six countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau also said later Tuesday that Canada may follow the lead of the U.S. and Britain in relation to unspecified security threats. Garneau says he talked to John Kelly, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, on Monday and again on Tuesday about the possible threat. “He made us aware of the situation that we are analyzing very carefully. We will have a fulsome discussion within government and look at the information that has been presented to us and then we will make a decision,” Garneau told reporters Tuesday.Garneau said he would be talking to others in government, including Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale in the coming hours, before deciding whether Canada would take similar measures.“There is not a specific timeline but we are acting expeditiously,” he said, following a regularly scheduled cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill.But according to U.S. reports, the new measure is not based on any specific threat, or, be ...
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