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Apr. 18th, 2010 07:56 pmPassport Canada is updating its format, and it wants your input!
http://www.passportcanada.gc.ca/consultations/survey/index.aspx?lang=eng
(Now's a good time to tell them about how having the wrong sex on your passport puts you at risk.)
On Speed: Allow the submission of certified digital photos - instead of getting your photo taken by a digital camera, printed, mailed, re-scanned by passport Canad and printed on your passport, why not just have the photo people send it directly. It would mean less work, less cost, less paper and less risk of tampering.
On Cost: Don't get any more bells and whistles than you have to. Border security seems to be more of a form of taxpayer-funded participatory theatre than any kind of actual protection.
On "Other:" Remove the sex/gender marker. I don't see why it's on photo documentation in the first place. Perhaps it was a holdover from the days before photo ID? At present, The only thing it does is place intersexed and transgendered Canadians at risk of harassment, arrest or assault while traveling abroad - or just make it harder to get a visa to foreign countries.
Failing that, make the "sex" box optionally left blank (an option recently made legal, if infrequent, Australian and Nepalese ID). At the very least don't require surgery for intersexed or transgendered Canadians before they're allowed to update their passport. If you need some kind of proof, maybe a counselor's note?
http://www.passportcanada.gc.ca/consultations/survey/index.aspx?lang=eng
(Now's a good time to tell them about how having the wrong sex on your passport puts you at risk.)
On Speed: Allow the submission of certified digital photos - instead of getting your photo taken by a digital camera, printed, mailed, re-scanned by passport Canad and printed on your passport, why not just have the photo people send it directly. It would mean less work, less cost, less paper and less risk of tampering.
On Cost: Don't get any more bells and whistles than you have to. Border security seems to be more of a form of taxpayer-funded participatory theatre than any kind of actual protection.
On "Other:" Remove the sex/gender marker. I don't see why it's on photo documentation in the first place. Perhaps it was a holdover from the days before photo ID? At present, The only thing it does is place intersexed and transgendered Canadians at risk of harassment, arrest or assault while traveling abroad - or just make it harder to get a visa to foreign countries.
Failing that, make the "sex" box optionally left blank (an option recently made legal, if infrequent, Australian and Nepalese ID). At the very least don't require surgery for intersexed or transgendered Canadians before they're allowed to update their passport. If you need some kind of proof, maybe a counselor's note?