All-access pass

As seen in this CBC story, airport security has become a bit of a hot potato this week.

John Baird (federal Minister of Transportation) and a Liberal senator were able to sneak into a number of unauthorized areas of Toronto's Pearson Airport, including spending a significant amount of time on the tarmac.

One of Baird's quotes on the issue was along the lines of "we spend so much time making sure people don't bring toothpaste or hair gel onto a plane, maybe we have some other holes to patch up first". I couldn't agree more.

However, what the media has mostly been ignoring in this story is that it's not like Baird and Senator Kenny decided on the spur of the moment to breach airport security. Time and thought went into this plan, and Senator Kenny at least was wearing an orange safety vest and carrying a clipboard.

And that's the ticket. Clipboards give you instant legitimacy - if you're holding a clipboard, our society assumes that you are meant to be wherever you are.

After having worked at a grocery store for only a couple of months, it was inventory time. While some of my co-workers toiled away in the freezer, repiling and labeling overstock, I was dispatched to go out on the sales floor and take down the prices of anything we had in the back.

Take them down on what?, I asked, being relatively new to the job and used to writing things on pieces of cardboard.

A clipboard, came the response.

So I grabbed a pen/marker and a clipboard and some paper and went out to write down prices.

In the few minutes I was out there, I noticed that customers were a) a lot more likely to ask me questions and b) a lot more likely to believe the responses coming from this 15-year-old because he's writing on a clipboard so he must know what he's doing.

The store's technology has since improved, clipboards have been largely phased out and replaced with computers. But the original point stands.

Should you ever want to sneak into somewhere you shouldn't be, take a clipboard. And something to write with. And just generally look like you know what you're doing.

People - especially at large workplaces such as an airport or an arena - don't know the fact of every single person who works with them. And even if they do, who's to say you weren't a contractor or consultant brought in by some level of management? As long as you look like you know what you're doing, and look like you belong wherever you are, you can do whatever you want.

Note that I do not condone this behaviour. Terrorists and other unsavoury groups could pull off the same trick, and that's not what any of us want. As 1984ish as it sounds, more security - bar-coded ID cards or something - is the only way to keep our public areas safe.

But still. Try taking a clipboard and doing something you shouldn't be doing. People will leave you alone. Trust me.

--Ryan