VIP treatment for Halle Berry angers Canadians
By IANSFriday, January 8, 2010
TORONTO - Canadian police are under fire for fast-tracking Hollywood actress Halle Berry through security checks at Montreal airport even as thousand of passengers waited for their turn in line Monday.
The Oscar winning actress was travelling with her family from Montreal to Los Angeles in an Air Canada flight.
Berry, her boyfriend Gabriel Aubry who hails from Montreal and their 22-month-old daughter Nahla didn’t have to wait in line as a police officer quickly escorted them through US customs.
But the VIP treatment for the Hollywood star left passengers furious and Canadians angry, forcing Montreal police to admit that it was a mistake to treat Berry differently during the Holiday rush amid tighter security.
In a directive issued Friday to its officers, police ordered them not to repeat the mistake of according special treatment to anyone as passengers cope with security-related delays after the aborted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas day.
“The husband of Ms Berry asked if they could go faster through the line because they were late and they had the baby,” police inspector Jimmy Cacchione, who heads the 36-member airport security unit, told the Canadian Press.
“The officer took the personal initiative to allow them to go through the line faster, but that’s not something the Montreal police supports,” the police inspector said.
He said police provide escort only when celebrity passengers face a threat of mobbing by autograph seekers and when passengers have disability or are travelling with kids.
But that wasn’t the case when Halle Berry and her family were escorted through customs Monday, he said.
Since millions of them travel to the US, Canadians are fuming at the tighter security at the country’s airports. Passengers have been banned from taking any carry-on bag on board, and face additional full body searches just before entering the plane.
The government has ordered installation of full-body scanners at all the major airports, further infuriating civil rights groups and lawyers.
–Indo-Asian News Service
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