Carol you are so intelligent. How ever did you end up with my brother, with brains like yours. Glad you came and read this, now I will post all the corespondence with airport security. Here is the letter I sent to them.

Sorry about being so long, with Christmas and all it just got away from me.
My parents flew to Edmonton this fall to see my brother and when they flew home on Dec 3/05 they were treated like some kind of criminal's at the Edmonton airport. I do not know the flight they were on but they arrived back in Saskatoon at 6:40 p.m. If you need more info about their flight I will get it for you. My father, who is legally blind, has Parkinson's disease and requires a cane to walk, will be 80 this spring and mother will be 75. When they go anywhere where he can use it, he also uses a walker. When they went through security at the Edmonton airport, bound for Saskatoon, the two security men said they wanted to see his walker. They looked to see if it could be taken apart easily, but it only folds, so they scrutinized it, looking for contraband or something. This is already foolish, but to this point one could say they were only doing their jobs. Then they asked to see his cane. This is a homemade wooden cane, made by dad's great uncle and very special to him. The younger of the two guards asked dad if the cane had a pipe or a steel rod down the center of the cane and dad told him he did not know. Then again he asked if this came apart and was told no it did not. He proceeded to twist and wrench the cane to see if it would come apart, the whole time grilling my father about the construction of this cane. He then told dad that the only way he was going to be able to check it properly was to break it in half and have a look inside. At this point the older of the two guards said that it would be okay and gave the cane and walker back to my dad. He then told him they had to be careful because there was some kind of "Chinese trick" (not sure what that means) to smuggle things aboard planes this way. I am quite sure the punk security guard who harassed an old man about his cane felt quite big and brave, for keeping the country safe from the criminals of this world. This was not a case of keeping the country safe. This was a case of a little power in the hands of an even smaller person that got completely out of hand. This was not a flight from an international location by someone who could be reasonably suspected to be carrying drugs. This was an old Mennonite couple coming from Edmonton to Saskatoon for goodness sake!
Please don't send me a note telling me that this was only their job. It wasn't. I appreciate that things are different in the world now. People lock their doors now, and we all want to feel safe wherever we are. But I have never felt threatened by an old man who requires a cane and or a walker to get around, with his only accomplice a 75 year old great grandma. I am not looking to have this young boy fired, I only want you to deal with it so that the next old man or woman who needs a cane or walker does not feel intimidated by some punk kid with a badge.