Sean's Original Opinions on the News: Airlines in Canada Allow Cell Phones!

On Monday, May 26, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced that travelers will soon be allowed to use their cell phones (on airplane mode), as well as other mobile devices, during takeoff and landing of the airplane. These newer restrictions will allow any airplane company which proves that cell phones do not interfere with their navigational and communication equipment to utilize the relaxations, and many aircraft companies, specifically Boeing, definitely would like to prove that they are capable, since Boeing “wants to be more like Apple” (a cooler company). This is not unexpected of Canada, since America and the EU already said they were going to pass similar changes, and so Canada is just following suit.

I for one feel this is long overdue, considering that aircraft aviation has improved so much. To think that they would design an aircraft that could have its communication tampered with through a cell phone is preposterous, and so why would these old laws persist for so long? Even if the government says they still want the cell phones to remain in airplane mode through the flight, it still shows that Canada, and the world, is moving in the right direction, towards looser laws around such things that I believe are largely rooted in suspicion rather than fact.