(Canada.com) Halle Berry Jumps Queue At Canada's Trudeau Airport
In the ongoing, post-9/11 aviation nightmare, the question on Montrealers' lips Friday was not how, where or when the latest attempt was made to blow us out of the sky, but how famous or talented you need to be to bypass long lineups before the flight.
Is a People's Choice Award enough, or does it have to be an Oscar?
In case you were stuck in an airport lineup yourself yesterday and haven't yet heard, Oscar-winning actor Halle Berry and her model husband were spotted on Monday jumping a U.S. Customs queue at Trudeau International Airport - with the help of a Montreal Police officer.
While others waited more than an hour in line - stomachs grumbling for breakfast, babies screaming to high heaven - the A-list couple were whisked with their 22-month-old daughter right through to the comfort of their executive class seats on an Air Canada plane to Los Angeles.
Aéroports de Montréal, which manages the airport, says it doesn't give preferential treatment to anyone - in most cases they're not even notified when a VIP comes through the sliding doors.
Air Canada said it doesn't differentiate based on celebrity, either, but rather according to fares.
As executive class passengers, Berry and her partner, Montreal-born Gabriel Aubry, were entitled to priority lines through check-in, boarding and security, said Air Canada spokesperson Isabelle Arthur.
"It's a question of the passenger who buys the ticket," Arthur said. "The fare they've paid entitles them to a different level of service. ... Go online and see the difference in price."
Indeed, if they were to book their tickets today to travel on Monday in executive class, Berry and Aubry would each pay $3,373 for a direct flight to L.A., compared with $216 to fly through Chicago in economy.
Certainly $3,000 should pay for a seat in the Maple Leaf Lounge, and maybe even a meal on board.
But should your fare really determine how long it takes to get through customs or security - where everyone must expose themselves for the greater good?
Mathieu Larocque, a spokesperson for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, said CATSA's job only begins when you get to the X-ray scanners and pat-downs.
"How they get to our door is not our responsibility," he said.
Berry and Aubry were properly "processed" through security, Larocque added.
As it turned out, it was a lone police officer acting on his own initiative - and against police policy - who helped Berry and her family skip to the front of the U.S. Customs line.
Montreal Police Inspector Jimmy Cacchione, who heads the 36-member unit that patrols the Montreal airport - and particularly since 9/11 the U.S. departures area - said the officer was approached by Aubry and made a spur-of-the-moment decision to help them.
The Montreal police don't pick favourites, however, said Cacchione, and it was bad timing on the officer's part, so soon after new security measures have meant even longer lines for regular folk.
After a Montreal journalist, Marie-Eve Paradis, who happened to be on the same flight, wrote about the experience on her blog, it's understandable why people would be upset, Cacchione said.
Paradis, who waited her turn in the customs line, was then berated by an Air Canada employee for being late to board the flight.
As for Berry, with a 22-month-old in her arms, she could have just asked an Air Canada employee for a free pass - whatever fare she paid - and probably would have got it.
(CBC News) U.S. Customers Officer Let Halle Berry Bypass Airport Security Line
A Montreal police officer "took the personal initiative" to move American actor Halle Berry, her Canadian partner and their daughter to the front of a lengthy U.S. customs queue at Trudeau airport earlier this week, a police spokesman said Friday.
Oscar winner Berry, Quebec model Gabriel Aubry and their daughter were spotted bypassing a long lineup Monday before they boarded a Montreal airport flight to Los Angeles — an incident reported by Quebec media outlets and slammed by at least one blogger.
Insp. Jimmy Cacchione, who heads the Montreal police force’s 36-member airport unit, acknowledged the officer's move had nothing to do with keeping the celebrity family safe.
Cacchione said the officer made the decision to let the couple through after a spur-of-the-moment request by Aubry.
"The husband of Ms. Berry asked if they could go faster through the line because they were late and they had the baby," Cacchione said. "The officer took the personal initiative to allow them to go through the line faster, but that's not something the Montreal police supports."
Cacchione added that the officer will not be reprimanded and the police airport unit will institute stricter rules for the future.
Escort by police 'a bit exaggerated': blogger
Before police reacted to Quebec media reports, freelance journalist Mariève Paradis said in her French-language blog that other passengers in the same line as Berry and her family had to wait as long as an hour.
"I need to make one thing clear … I have absolutely nothing against Halle Berry, or movie stars," Paradis wrote.
"They are probably nice people living in a world that's different from mine! I just find that an escort by the Montreal police strikes me as a bit exaggerated. Couldn't she have been escorted by an agent from Air Canada or the airport?"
"It was a very hard morning that day because there were so many people," Paradis told CBC News from Los Angeles on Friday.
When she and her husband arrived at the gate only minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off, Paradis said she was scolded by Air Canada staff.
"We would not have been late if we were Halle Berry," Paradis said.
Heightened airport security measures brought in after an alleged bomb plot was foiled following a transatlantic flight to Detroit on Christmas Day resulted in long lineups for passengers travelling to the United States over the holidays.
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Sources: Canada.com, CBC News, AOL, E!Online, Google Maps
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