On February 27, 2018 the announced Federal Budget included funding of $81M over 5 years for improvements to the Passenger Protect Program to address the problem of false positives.

What Canadian families experienced over the last 11 years is hopefully now coming to an end. The #NoFlyListKids voices have been heard and the government has recognized the errors in the Passenger Protect Program as a problem that needs to be solved.

The purpose of our advocacy was to represent not just children, but people of all ages and from all walks of life who are impacted by the flaws in the current system. These shortcomings negatively impact the overall security and rights of innocent Canadians and cannot be allowed to continue unfixed. It is for that reason we have had broad, multi-party support from Ministers and MPs for a full redress system and are truly grateful that our concerns will now be addressed.

Advocacy like this, spanning over two years, requires a proverbial village, devoting countless hours of tireless work.  We have received advice and support from individuals and groups who have advocated on this issue for over a decade. Our work relied on research and resources developed by teams of very talented individuals, to whom we are incredibly indebted.

We would like to recognize and thank Minister Goodale, Minister Morneau and Prime Minister Trudeau for supporting the funding of the full redress system.  Additionally, we would like to acknowledge that we have received tremendous support from numerous party leaders and MPs, over 200 of which wrote letters of support. Some of our champions included Hon. Jane Philpott, Hon. Wayne Easter, Ali Ehsassi, Rob Oliphant, and Kate Young of the Liberals, Hon. Erin O’Toole, Hon. Lisa Raitt, and Hon. Andrew Scheer from the Conservatives, Jagmeet Singh and Matthew Dube of the NDP, Elizabeth May of the Green Party, and Monique Pauze of the BQ.

We are excited and proud of this achievement. We promise to continue this work, further conversation with the government and offer our support through the implementation process.