Canada. Dept. of Transport. Aviation Security : Aviation security activities, when they were undertaken, initially fell under the responsibility of the regular aviation units of the department, including Air Services (1936-1970), followed by the Canadian Air Transportation Administration (1970-1985). Security issues in the early days were limited and mostly treated as criminal issues for the police, rather than issues of transportation policy. Hijackings in the 1960s and 70s, for example, led to a 1972 amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada making it an offense to smuggle weapons and explosives on board an aircraft. But pressures increased, and a 1973 amendment to the Aeronautics Act finally imposed requirements on air carriers to establish and operate security screening programs. The Department of Transport (DoT) provided equipment, such as metal detectors, where it was the airport owner. The International Civil Aviation Organization's adoption in 1974 of Annex 17 - Security - Safeguarding International Civil Aviation against Acts of Unlawful Interference, fully cemented DoT's responsibility for aviation security policy in Canada.
The Air India bombing on June 23, 1985 became a seminal moment in Canadian aviation security history. In the aftermath, the Interdepartmental Committee on Security Intelligence released a report in September of 1985, dubbed the Seaborn Report, which examined the context and details around the incident. It recommended sweeping changes to aviation security across government, and pointed at Transport Canada specifically for improvements to legislation and policy, funding and staffing, intelligence coordination, technological analysis, and organizational change. The ensuing changes included that security functions within Transport were consolidated in 1986 into a new Security and Emergency Preparedness Directorate. An event outside of Canada, the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, became a second seminal moment in Canadian aviation security history. Canada reacted swiftly by budgeting and enacting legislation for the creation of a new Crown corporation, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, to administer passenger and luggage security screening programs across nearly 100 Canadian airports. In 2009, a reorganization resulted in the creation of a new Aviation Security Directorate within the Safety and Security Group. The new Directorate has continued to administer Transport's aviation security responsibilities since then.
