Former armed guard Andy Gschwend never thought he'd be modelling his old bulletproof vest, with its Garda logo, for a CTV reporter and camera crew. He pulled it out of his closet, though -- to illustrate the fact that he still has the uniform.  And he believes this represents a potential security problem.

"These were just things they gave to me and (Garda) just never wanted them back," said Gschwend.

For a year, he worked for Garda World Security Corp, a successful and rapidly-growing Montreal-based firm. He came forward to raise his concerns to CTV's Whistleblower unit, because Garda also has multi-million dollar government contracts -- to do security screening at 27 of Canada's airports. Garda holds more government contracts to do airport screening than any other company in Canada.

"I fear the day that somebody walks through (the screening area) with some explosive and blows up a plane. And two, three hundred innocent people will die. I have no profit in this. I get nothing out of this. I hold no grudge. None. I couldn't care less. But, I worry about that day," said Gschwend.

About 2,800 people work for Garda as airport screening officers. They wear government uniforms, but are hired and paid by the company. One requirement, set by the government, is that job-seekers demonstrate that they've been in Canada for a minimum of five years, in order to obtain their positions.

The company takes their initial application and hires them, and then Transport Canada is supposed to double check their backgrounds.

"I know for a fact that some people haven't been here that amount of time that they need to be," said Gschwend. "One of the guys that worked at one of the pickups that we have -- his wife wasn't even in the country for three months and she got one of those passes." When asked by CTV whether anyone checked her background, he replied, "What are you going to check? Call a reference? Has she worked there? Oh yeah she's worked here. She's worked here for five years. Oh, OK."

"They have to hire these people," he insisted. "They have to. The one guy that sat beside me (and was involved in hiring) he said to me himself, 'Andy, we need to hire pretty much everybody thats coming in because we are short of people'," Gschwend said. "Hardly any of them had prior experience in that sort of field."

Gschwend says when Garda put on "recruitment days," dozens of people would show up -- office workers and labourers, for example -- all wanting to work at the airport.

"There would be four (Garda) people trying to interview and test 40. So there would be a room full of these people filling out tests and paperwork and they would just leave. The interviewers. They would leave. That room would be empty. I would walk through it all the time. And you'd just look and these people would be talking to each other and filling out tests. How serious is that? Those are the people that are going to be screening at the airport."

Gschwend says it seemed to him that almost anyone was hired -- and many quit just as quickly.

"It was like a big flea market. Push them through -- let's go, let's go," he claimed. "With armoured division we used to pick up (screening officer) uniforms from the airport. Every second day. (There was) huge turnover. How can we be picking up uniforms every second day? I mean there used to be boxes. Box after box."

His biggest fear is that the wrong people are getting into those uniforms, perhaps with connections to terrorism.

"The company is not full of terrorists. It's not. It's the lack of professionalism, the lack of training -- that opens up the doorway. The doorway to a lot of places for a lot of other bad people from outside the company," he said. "All you'd have to do is apply for (a screening officer job) at a time that they need more people."

Much of what Gschwend said was confirmed by union sources, who spoke to CTV off camera.

The United Steelworkers of Canada represents many of the airport screening officers across Canada. Union sources said they are also very concerned -- about high turnover, inadequate training, lack of clear direction for employees and low wages.

The private contractors pay screening officers, on average, $12.86 per hour. Custom Officers working for the Canadian Border Services Agency make twice that much. In the U.S., airport screening officers work for the government, not for private companies -- and they are also paid more than their Canadian counterparts.

Canadian Senator Colin Kenney, who chairs the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, believes Canada should perhaps follow -- and improve upon -- the U.S. example.

"I'm very concerned with the whole issue of how the government is going about hiring its screeners," Senator Kenney told CTV. "You can't do it (well) with minimum wages and no benefits. You're going to have a very high turnover youre going to be always training people because people will be leaving jobs they dont like."

He believes the concerns raised by Gschwend give more weight to the argument against private contractors.

"Instead of paying a subcontractor or contractor to do it...(the government should) go through the process and do it ourselves," said Kenney. He added, "This person's allegations should be looked into thoroughly."

Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon refused CTV's request for an interview about this, as did Garda, which says its government contracts forbid the company from saying anything publicly about airport security.

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