According to our Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s interpretation of the law, your passport picture must be “identical” to what you “claim to be”.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/671732
Otherwise, Canadian consular officials may declare you to be an impostor, and you could be stuck abroad or maybe even jailed there.
There is of course a chance our government will let you take a DNA test, but be prepared to hire lawyers before you leave Canada.
What is this, people?
I agree with Cannon on this one. What’s the point of having a passport picture if it doesn’t look like you? The same can be said for drivers licenses, health cards, and all other photo ID.
That’s not what Cannon said. His words were that “all Canadians … generally have a picture that is identical in their passport to what they claim to be”. This statement in itself has zero useful meaning. All he says is the picture in the ID must belong to the person who was issued the ID. This is obvious because otherwise the ID is fake. But that is not the issue here because according to Canadian officials the passport is genuine. So all we learn from Cannon’s statement is that he is a master of saying nothing in so many words.
Let’s assume what he really means is this: the passport picture must be “identical” to the appearance of the person claiming the identity in the passport. Still, your point about the ID photo having to look like you is not what he said. First, looking like something is far different from being “identical” to it. Second, there is not a single photograph in the world that is “identical” to the person it represents.
If our government wants to apply the “identical” standard to bearers of Canadian passports, every citizen of this country should be very, very scared.
Or don’t ever leave Canada.
This situation is absolutely absurd! Somehow I sense Jason Kenney is involved.
There must be some documentation of this lady leaving the country and where she was headed. If a prima facie case can be made based on a paper trail, and testimony from an employer, family and friends, confirmation tests should take place in Canada. And DNA sampling should not be a requirement!
“What is this, people?”
…umm, racism?
Tim,
Of course it’s racism! The person in question is not white, that’s what it must be! Can you give me any plausible reason (that is not circumstantial) for why you’re calling racism? Until you come up with it, I call BS on your inflammatory allegations.
Rool,
I see your point about “identical”, but I still think he meant that the ID has to look like you. But yeah, he could have phrased it better.
Annon, she clearly looks like her passport picture.
I saw both her current image and the passport picture in the media. Also, probably dozens of her family members, friends, and co-workers saw the same thing. They still vouch for her.
If “looking like” is really what Cannon meant, this is a case of abandoning, defaming, and false testimony with respect to a Canadian abroad.
Why was she singled out for such gross injustice? She is a Canadian—one of us, no?
Can’t we stop this. Why do we do such things, that gives rise to such topics. Let’s fight against it.
That is a correct measure. If this much strictness is not applied in the nation’s law, then how will people combat crime.
In all fairness…I don’t know. To be honest, I haven’t seen the pictures, only descriptions. I would also like to see stats on the fraudulent use of passports (or use of fake passports), especially related to the country where this woman is stranded. High incidence of passport fraud may shed some light on why this woman, with a supposedly questionable passport picture, was “singled out”.
Again, I am not defending anyone, I don’t know all the facts, but neither does anyone else. I’m just trying to show people the other side of this story. Canada needs to control its borders, just like any other country. This may unfortunately mean that some Canadians are inconvenienced. The minister is suggesting a way to prevent that inconvenience from happening to you.
Also, let’s not forget which country jailed this woman (hint: it wasn’t Canada).
But it was on Canada’s instigation.