What if the Edmonton teenager who almost boarded a plane with a pipe bomb wasn't white?

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      When 18-year-old Skylar Murphy went through airport security last September, he accidentally had a pipe bomb with him. Nevertheless, the Edmonton resident was allowed to catch his flight to Mexico.

      Murphy was arrested upon his return to Canada and eventually fined $100. But post-9/11, that’s not such a bad deal for nearly boarding an international flight with an explosive device.

      “I don’t think it would be speculation to say that if this was a racialized young man, that this person would have been treated very different,” said Harsha Walia, a Vancouver-based activist who often focuses on immigration issues.

      On the phone from Alberta where she was promoting her book, Undoing Border Imperialism, Walia discussed with the Straight what might have happened had Skyler Murphy’s driver’s license read something like “Mansoor Musafir”.

      Right away, Musafir would have had to forget about a week on the beach in Mexico. In Walia's scenario, upon Border Services finding the bomb in his luggage, Musafir was quickly moved to a small room and kept by himself until RCMP officers arrived and began a lengthy interrogation.

      That was the start of a 72-hour period for which Musafir was held without charges, which is permitted under Canadian antiterror laws. His right to remain silent was swept aside and officers repeatedly mentioned that in the past, Canada had transferred terrorist suspects to governments rougher than theirs.

      Outside the airport, authorities giddy with their easy arrest had already leaked news of Musafir’s supposed plans to the media. On televisions across North America that night, Musafir’s family was probed and photographs of relatives in Lebanon were displayed with question marks next to them. The young man’s Facebook and Twitter feeds were scrutinized for anything that could be interpreted as “radical”. By day two, Ezra Levant was debating the implications of the length of Musafir’s stubbly facial hair.

      Finally released after the RCMP conceded there was a lack of evidence to charge Musafir, authorities nevertheless placed his name on a no-fly list and restricted his movement for one year, which is also allowed under Canadian law.

      “Regardless of what the outcome would be, this person would be labeled a terrorist and presumed to have foreign connections,” Walia said. “I think this very clearly indicates that there is a double standard in terms of how security operates.”

      In September 2013, an eighteen-year-old Edmonton resident was permitted to board an international flight to Mexico despite having a pipe bomb found in his luggage.
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      Zool Suleman, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, suggested that Murphy’s case is symptomatic of racial profiling.

      “There is no doubt that race plays a large element in how enforcement authorities deal and prosecute cases,” he said. “If this gentleman had been of Middle Eastern origin or a visible minority in some manner, or perhaps even from a lower socioeconomic background, I have no doubt that he would have been subjected to much more scrutiny and perhaps much more enforcement.”

      Suleman questioned how the incident highlights who is perceived as a threat and what sort of person is not.

      “I don’t want to speculate, but if you’re being subjected to enforcement, you’re found with a pipe bomb in your possession, and perhaps you have a Muslim background, my sense would be that there is a very low chance you would be boarding your plane,” he added.

      Walia called it a case of “white privilege”.

      “People with white skin are treated incredibly differently by law enforcement and different agencies connected to government,” she said.

      You can follow Travis Lupick on Twitter at twitter.com/tlupick.

      Comments

      27 Comments

      Uncle Jack

      Jan 17, 2014 at 4:01pm

      What a fabricated problem solely meant to serve the writer's agenda!!
      ,
      At the same "intellectual" level with Scotty in Star Trek exclaiming "If grandma had wheels she'd be a wagon!!"

      Rolf

      Jan 17, 2014 at 4:04pm

      Unfortunately this is just how color coded teh world is.... mistakes made by a white person (and it was a mistake by this kid) is treated as just that, if he was Muslim, that mistake will come to define his life ever after (try flying ever again after that fiasco).

      Barking Mad

      Jan 17, 2014 at 5:40pm

      “...if this was a racialized young man, that this person would have been treated very different,”...

      I should hope that a person (of any colour, ethnicity, religion or political leaning) attempting to board a plane with a bomb would initially be treated as a threat and need to be cleared before being allowed to continue. If security had been doing their job properly the same would have been done with this young man.

      While there are cases of profiling and people are sometimes unfairly treated, Harsha Walia is not helping anyone by turning an instance of administrative bungling into a racial issue to suit her activist agenda. Implying that it is always minorities that are victimized (even if they are at times singled out more often) while white persons are never hassled is just one more instance of the "Us versus Them" rhetoric being used to divide society.

      John

      Jan 17, 2014 at 8:18pm

      Doesn't matter what color skin, it was wrong and should not have happened. He should be charged the same as anyone else would be charged. You should be able to understand why a Muslim in the same situation would raise red flags, however I can't imagine a Muslim citizen accidently leaving a pipe bomb in their bag with recent history.

      cathy

      Jan 18, 2014 at 12:22am

      He "accidentally had a pipe bomb with him"???
      How does anyone "accidentally" have a pipe bomb?
      What's an 18 year old doing with a pipe bomb anyways?
      Wouldn't a pipe bomb be picked up by the detectors?

      This incident raises more questions than answers.

      Save Vancouver

      Jan 18, 2014 at 8:13am

      What if the guy who urinated on the Komagata Maru memorial wasn't a junkie?

      Still waiting for that article....

      bruther

      Jan 18, 2014 at 8:23am

      The Harper security state has an answer for all this: "He never intended to use the pipe bomb on the place." So, in their minds, racial profiling actually works!

      Alan Layton

      Jan 18, 2014 at 8:38am

      This is clearly a hate crime and the airport security guard(s) should be imprisoned and talked about harshly on social media. This is assuming the guards are white of course, which is probably the case.

      Father (in-law?) a sheriff?

      Jan 18, 2014 at 10:13am

      I think I also read that the father-in-law was a sheriff?

      I imagine that might have helped him too.

      Bull Harbour

      Jan 18, 2014 at 12:56pm

      Stupidity knows no colour, race, religion or creed. Looks like there was plenty to go around in this incident.