On safeguards

A spokesflack for Vic Toews tries to explain why we shouldn't be the least bit worried about the Harper government handing passenger information to the U.S. even for flights which don't land there:

The United States has agreed to erase after seven days, passenger information "that is confirmed to not be linked with terrorism."

Which should be highly reassuring on a couple of fronts. After all, who wouldn't be completely pleased with the U.S. seeking whatever additional information it wants about all Canadian passengers and everybody they're linked to in order to "confirm" a negative before erasing any information?

And more importantly, who would doubt for a second that anybody saddled with a false positive will get a fair shake in trying to clear their name, both from the U.S. and Canada?