A British Columbia airline has gotten a slap on the wrist for refusing to sell a ticket to a Greenpeace activist. Pacific Coastal Airlines tried to defend itself by saying that it provides transportation to many loggers and logging industry employees and that having a Greenpeace worker on its plane could “compromise safety.” But the Canadian Transportation Agency didn’t buy that line of reasoning and said the airline would be punished if it again denied a seat to a Greenpeace activist. Daryl Smith, the airline founder and a former logger, called the green group a “quasi-terrorist organization” and said, “We told them we don’t want them on our airplanes.” Tamara Stark, the spurned ticket-buyer, had been trying to catch a lift to the town of Bella Coola to discuss logging issues with local residents, not to organize a protest.
