Canadian Port Workers Complain Of Stringent Personal Security Checks

Ottawa, Canada (AHN) - Port workers are questioning the stringent background checks on their personal lives, including their spouses, while the federal government has not imposed more stringent checks on cabinet members.

Tom Dufresne, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada, pointed out that port workers assigned in certain zones need to give the date and place of birth of their spouses and even ex-spouses dating back to five years.

"Any minister would have access to a great deal more confidential and sensitive information than any of my members... We certainly shouldn't have to undergo any deeper background check than a minister of the Crown would," Dufresne said at the House of Commons Monday, quoted by the Globe and Mail.

Other senior bureaucrats too face extensive scrutiny, Bloc Quebecois MP Serge Menard told the House of Commons. The extent of their investigation include interviews with all family members and household staff down to the cleaning lady, and even for newsmen who cover official trips of government officials overseas and cook helpers in fiscal centers.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to take a closer look at the relationships of Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, who is at the eye of the storm after accounts came out in media of the ties of his former girlfriend Julie Couillard with two biker gang members. Harper instead accused the opposition of being "gossipy old busybodies," while insisting Bernier's affairs are private matters.

At the Commons hearing, federal officials explained that tough security checks on port workers as measures to prevent the rise of criminal activities and terrorists acts in Canadian ports.