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random ranting
Nov. 22nd, 2006 07:11 amPassports needed to fly to U.S. starting Jan. 23
Damn.
I have always made a point to travel to the U.S. on my birth certificate, just because I could. Travelling on a passport means that you need to be a reputable Canadian, i.e. you need to have the approval of your two (or one?) approved professionals; the fact that you are born in this country is not sufficient anymore.
When I moved to Toronto from Vancouver and needed my passport (to go to France), this was a major pain in the ass for me as I did not know any bloody professionals for two years; I had arrived just a year prior. I finally managed to convince some people to sign for me, but still. I was born here, and I was not going to travel to Québec City to get my documents signed. But what if I just wasn't a sick person? What if I hadn't needed the services of a lawyer? What if I brushed my teeth every day and didn't need a dentist? What if I didn't go to university (which I hadn't, at the time) and didn't know any professors?
I.e., if you happen to be a healthy, working class person, it's harder for you to get a passport than if you are a higher-educated or higher-earning crook that just happens not to have been caught yet. I mean, there's something like a quarter or a third of Canadians that don't have a family doctor.
* * *
In an ironic way, this is going to make "terrorist" detection more difficult: If we follow the logic of racial/immigrant profiling, immigrants and second-generation Canadians are more likely to be terrorists. But being immigrants/2nd-gen, they are much more likely to carry a passport, since they are much more frequent overseas travellers than the average public. By making the passport mandatory, they are diluting the pool of people they have to profile from.
Damn.
I have always made a point to travel to the U.S. on my birth certificate, just because I could. Travelling on a passport means that you need to be a reputable Canadian, i.e. you need to have the approval of your two (or one?) approved professionals; the fact that you are born in this country is not sufficient anymore.
When I moved to Toronto from Vancouver and needed my passport (to go to France), this was a major pain in the ass for me as I did not know any bloody professionals for two years; I had arrived just a year prior. I finally managed to convince some people to sign for me, but still. I was born here, and I was not going to travel to Québec City to get my documents signed. But what if I just wasn't a sick person? What if I hadn't needed the services of a lawyer? What if I brushed my teeth every day and didn't need a dentist? What if I didn't go to university (which I hadn't, at the time) and didn't know any professors?
I.e., if you happen to be a healthy, working class person, it's harder for you to get a passport than if you are a higher-educated or higher-earning crook that just happens not to have been caught yet. I mean, there's something like a quarter or a third of Canadians that don't have a family doctor.
* * *
In an ironic way, this is going to make "terrorist" detection more difficult: If we follow the logic of racial/immigrant profiling, immigrants and second-generation Canadians are more likely to be terrorists. But being immigrants/2nd-gen, they are much more likely to carry a passport, since they are much more frequent overseas travellers than the average public. By making the passport mandatory, they are diluting the pool of people they have to profile from.
