Canada’s passport is getting a makeover — with a new design that will feature more natural landscapes and wildlife and fewer Canadian historical moments and monuments.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser said the new design is the product of 10 years of consultation.
“We tried to take the feedback about what represents Canada,” Fraser said.
“One of the things that I heard was we want to celebrate our diversity and inclusion, we want to celebrate our natural environment … and [we] tried to bake those elements into the design.”
The current passport pages feature images such as Parliament’s Centre Block, the Stanley Cup, the famous photo of the last spike going into the Canadian Pacific Railway, and photos of Nellie McClung and Terry Fox. The new passport displays animals (bears, narwhals and owls) and natural scenes, such as children jumping into a lake.
Fraser said a complete change in theme was necessary to improve the passport’s security.
“It makes it much harder to counterfeit,” Fraser said.
“It does make it easier when you maintain the same images for a significant period of time for counterfeiters to abuse the document and to produce fakes.”
The new passport cover bears the same coat of arms as the current passport, but adds a large maple leaf.
Gould said the new passport design reflects Canada.
“I think when you look at the images here, they are fairly traditional Canadian images,” she said.
“I mean, if you look at polar bears, and people jumping into a lake, and birds in the winter, I mean I think it really captures the spirit of who we are as Canadians.”
A page from the new Canadian passport shows children jumping into a lake with a canoe in the background. (Government of Canada)
Gould defended the passport when reporters asked why historical Canadian figures, monuments and buildings are not on the pages.
“I think a couple of the questions have been suggesting that there’s a partisan aspect to this,” Gould said.
“I think it’s important to say that this is not partisan. The design of this passport started 10 years ago and this is really about ensuring the security of the document.”
Fraser said the design change was not the result of complaints heard during the consultation.
“There’s no feedback we received that people found our history offensive,” he said.
The Royal Canadian Legion criticized the redesign for removing an image of the Vimy Ridge Memorial.
“We are disappointed by the decision to remove an image that signifies the sacrifices made for the very sort of freedom the passport provides,” the Legion said in a media statement.
“The Vimy Memorial was a fundamental image, also representing a defining moment for Canada, a country emerging as an independent nation with limitless potential. Removing that image in the context of a design change and without knowing the rationale was, to put it bluntly, a poor decision.”
A page from the new Canadian passport shows owls in front of a farm. (Government of Canada)
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre led question period in the House of Commons Wednesday by asking the government why it removed the image of the Vimy Ridge Memorial.
“Why is he deleting the 3,598 Canadians who gave their lives so that Canada could have freedom and victory at Vimy? He is erasing them and with that, he is insulting all of our veterans,” Poilievre said.
“Why won’t the prime minister not stand up for our history, get connected to reality and keep the images in our passport that make us so proud to be Canadian?”
Trudeau responded not by defending the passport but by attacking the former Conservative government’s record on veterans.
“They wrapped themselves in the flags and the symbols any time they can, but in fact, they nickeled and dimed our veterans, they used them for photo ops, they shut down nine veteran service offices across the country,” Trudeau said.
“The Conservatives have always disrespected veterans while they wrap themselves in the imagery.”
Canadian soldiers attend the sunset ceremony at Vimy Canadian National Memorial in Vimy, France on April 8, 2017. An image of the memorial appears in the current passport but will not be in the new one. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)
Poilievre also expressed dissatisfaction with the images in the new passport — such as a squirrel eating a nut and a man raking leaves.
Responding to questions from reporters Wednesday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh did not comment on the new passport.
“I don’t have a strong opinion on the appearance of the passport,” Singh said.
Passport contains new security features
Gould said that production of the new passport will begin soon. The current passport is still valid for travel and will be for up to 10 years. The government will start issuing the new passport later in the summer.
The passport features enhanced security features, including temperature-sensitive ink and ultraviolet images.
“The new passport includes state-of-the-art security features designed to keep Canadians’ identities safe, such as a polycarbonate data page — a technology similar to Canada’s driver’s licences,” a government news release said.
“Passport holders’ personal information will now be laser engraved instead of being printed with ink, making the data page more durable and resistant to tampering and counterfeiting.”
The federal government started issuing the current version of the passport in 2013.
The government is also set to launch a new online renewal system for passports in the fall of 2023.
NDP transport critic Taylor Bachrach welcomed the new renewal process.
“Eight years have passed since the Liberals promised ‘easy online access to government services,’ so this change is long overdue,” he said in a media statement.
“After a year of Canadians waiting hours in line for passports, New Democrats will keep pushing for accessible, efficient service.”
MONTREAL – The employers association at the Port of Montreal has issued the dockworkers’ union a “final, comprehensive offer,” threatening to lock out workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if a deal isn’t reached.
The Maritime Employers Association says its new offer includes a three per cent salary increase per year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package of a longshore worker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.
“The MEA agrees to this significant compensation increase in view of the availability required from its employees,” it wrote Thursday evening in a news release.
The association added that it is asking longshore workers to provide at least one hour’s notice when they will be absent from a shift — instead of one minute — to help reduce management issues “which have a major effect on daily operations.”
Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, which represents nearly 1,200 longshore workers, launched a partial unlimited strike on Oct. 31, which has paralyzed two terminals that represent 40 per cent of the port’s total container handling capacity.
A complete strike on overtime, affecting the whole port, began on Oct. 10.
The union has said it will accept the same increases that were granted to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver — 20 per cent over four years. It is also concerned with scheduling and work-life balance. Workers have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2023.
Only essential services and activities unrelated to longshoring will continue at the port after 9 p.m. Sunday in the event of a lockout, the employer said.
The ongoing dispute has had major impacts at Canada’s second-biggest port, which moves some $400 million in goods every day.
On Thursday, Montreal port authority CEO Julie Gascon reiterated her call for federal intervention to end the dispute, which has left all container handling capacity at international terminals at “a standstill.”
“I believe that the best agreements are negotiated at the table,” she said in a news release. “But let’s face it, there are no negotiations, and the government must act by offering both sides a path to true industrial peace.”
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Thursday, prior to the lockout notice, in which he criticized the slow pace of talks at the ports in Montreal and British Columbia, where more than 700 unionized port workers have been locked out since Nov. 4.
“Both sets of talks are progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved,” he wrote on the X social media platform.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Employers and the union representing supervisors embroiled in a labour dispute that triggered a lockout at British Columbia’s ports will attempt to reach a deal when talks restart this weekend.
A spokesman from the office of federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has confirmed the minister spoke with leaders at both the BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, but did not invoke any section of the Canadian Labour Code that would force them back to talks.
A statement from the ministry says MacKinnon instead “asked them to return to the negotiation table,” and talks are now scheduled to start on Saturday with the help of federal mediators.
A meeting notice obtained by The Canadian Press shows talks beginning in Vancouver at 5 p.m. and extendable into Sunday and Monday, if necessary.
The lockout at B.C. ports by employers began on Monday after what their association describes as “strike activity” from the union. The result was a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals across Canada’s west coast.
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint against the employers for allegedly bargaining in bad faith, a charge that employers call a “meritless claim.”
The two sides have been without a deal since March 2023, and the employers say its final offer presented last week in the last round of talks remains on the table.
The proposed agreement includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term along with an average lump sum payment of $21,000 per qualified worker.
The union has said one of its key concerns is the advent of port automation in cargo operations, and workers want assurances on staffing levels regardless of what technology is being used at the port.
The disruption is happening while two container terminals are shut down in Montreal in a separate labour dispute.
It leaves container cargo traffic disrupted at Canada’s two biggest ports, Vancouver and Montreal, both operating as major Canadian trade gateways on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
This is one of several work disruptions at the Port of Vancouver, where a 13-day strike stopped cargo last year, while labour strife in the rail and grain-handling sectors led to further disruptions earlier this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
