I would like to advise to the Conservative government of Stephen
Harper, that the best way, in my humble opinion, to tackle the thorny
issue of the "secured border document" as requested by the US
government as a potential substitute for carrying a passport when
crossing the border would be to expand the citizenship cards issued to
naturalized citizens to include all Canadian citizens and to make this
card a counterfeit-proof one by adding one's DNA or other biometric
characteristics. This card would be rendered a photo ID.

I would strongly argue against the practice of using one's driver's
license or even a birth certificate to cross the border, as these cards
are prone to falsification as was in the case of Ahmed Rassam, who in
1999, being a landed immigrant of Canada, used a driver's license to
cross the border, before being intercepted by border guards, on his way
to carry out a terrorist attack in LA. Besides, driver's licenses do
NOT reveal the carriers' citizenship.

A citizenship card would include details about one's citizenship, as is
already the practice in regards to naturalized Candians citizens,
prevent forging a document by including DNA etc, be the size of a
credit card and would be much cheaper than carrying a full-blown
Canadian passport.

On Jan. 1, 2007, all travellers crossing from Canada to the United
States on a maritime or air route will have to show a passport to
immigration officers, or an agreed-upon "secure document" which is yet
to be announced.

That includes American citizens returning to their own country. On Jan.
1, 2008, it would be expanded for people entering the U.S. on land
crossings. No exceptions. Unless Canada and the U.S. can agree on an
harmonized, biometric, high-tech substitute document, a passport would
be the only recognized form of ID.

The whole issue stems from the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative,
enacted in 2004 after it was discovered that a terrorist used
counterfeit Caribbean driver's licences and birth certificates for
people to illegally enter the U.S.. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution
to delay the implementation of this initiative until June 2009.

Nevertheless, due to disagreement with the House of Representatives on
a comprehensive immigration bill regarding provisions granting amnesty
to millions of illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S., this
measure is bogged down and is far from reaching the president's desk
for signature into law.

Most countries require passports for entering them. Some of them
require visas as well. Landed immigrants in Canada, even people born in
Britain, who are not yet Canadian nationals are required to show a
passport when crossing into the U.S. I'm not making it up.

What's needed is harmonizing Canadian and American immigration and visa
policy, for example using more NEXUS and FAST lanes.

ryanyoung26@hotmail.com wrote:


ooooh kaaaaayyyyy.....

ryanyoung26@hotmail.com a écrit :


Thought about this for a long time, have you, or are you just cribbing
from the Canada-U.S. "Smart" Border Declaration?

http://www.international.gc.ca/anti...tionplan-en.asp

"Smart", in this case, is a bit of sarcasm, I suspect.

ryanyoung26@hotmail.com wrote:


You would strongly advise against it because someone using a falsified one
was caught with it at the border? How about the 15 Arabs, mostly Saudis,
who entered the US with valid passports and visas, and lived, worked and/or
studied in the US for a long time before hijacking a bunch of planes and
flying them into the WTC and Pentagon? Enforcement agencies have networked
computer systems that allow them to access all sorts of data bases. While
the driver licence may not have information about citizenship or criminal
records, the information on them can be used to get information from other
data bases that can provide it.

What would be the difference in cost of a passport compared to an enhanced
citizenship card? - small, I suspect.
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